Labour ‘comfortable' with private firms providing assisted dying
Labour is 'comfortable' with private firms providing assisted dying to patients, a health minister has revealed.
Stephen Kinnock, the care minister, said assisted dying could be provided on the NHS and be free at the point of use, but that would not 'preclude the use of independent contractors'.
The minister, who voted in support of Kim Leadbeater's Terminally Ill Adults Bill, sits on the committee that is examining it to represent the views of the Department of Health and Social Care.
Ms Leadbeater's legislation seeks to enable those with fewer than six months to live to receive medical assistance to end their lives.
The Government is neutral on assisted dying, but Mr Kinnock and Sarah Sackman, a justice minister, appear on the Bill committee to advise on the workability of its proposals.
The care minister told The House magazine: 'Kim has said that she wants this service to be an integral part of the NHS, meaning free at the point of use.
'Certainly the advice that we as ministers have given her is we've clearly understood that that is her wish, and that is a wish that can be delivered and carried out.
'Now, free at the point of use doesn't preclude the use of independent contractors to deliver the service. So, yeah, we're comfortable with that.'
His remarks are the first time that a minister has publicly expressed support for the use of private firms offering assisted dying in England and Wales as part of plans to legalise it.
Critics have voiced concerns about the use of private companies in the provision of assisted dying as it would allow firms to profit from the system.
Danny Kruger, a Conservative MP on the Bill committee who opposes the legislation, said last week: 'It would be a money-making enterprise, quite a lucrative one. There have been estimates given of between 5,000 to 17,000 assisted deaths per year, depending on how it's estimated.
'If the charges employed by Dignitas, which is in a sense the model being proposed here, if they are anything to go by, this could be up to the region of £5,000 to £10,000 per patient.
'So even a small proportion of that would be… a significant multi-million pound business would be possible under this Bill.'
The Times reported earlier this month that there could be a limit on the profits that private companies could make from providing the service through the NHS.
Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, has previously warned that providing assisted dying on the NHS would have 'resource implications'.
The Cabinet minister, who opposes a change in the law, told Times Radio in November: 'There would be resource implications for doing [assisted dying]. And those choices would come at the expense of other choices.'
Mr Kinnock also told The House that he believed there would be 'ample opportunity for scrutiny' for the legislation in Parliament.
The Department of Health and Social Care has been contacted for comment.
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