The Health and Medicines (Northern Ireland) Order 1988

Extension of powers of the Department for financing [F1 health care] N.I.

3.—(1) In order to make more income available for improving [F1 health care], the Department shall have the powers specified in paragraph (2); but nothing in this Article authorises the Department or any body to which it gives directions under paragraph (3) to disregard any statutory provision or rule of law or to override any person's contractual or proprietory rights.

(2) The powers mentioned in paragraph (1) are powers[F2 (exercisable outside as well as within Northern Ireland)]

(a) to acquire, produce, manufacture and supply goods;

(b) to acquire land by agreement and manage and deal with land;

(c) to supply accommodation to any person;

(d) to supply services to any person and to provide new services;

(e) to provide instruction for any person;

(f) to develop and exploit ideas and exploit intellectual property;

(g) to do anything whatsoever which appears to the Department to be calculated to facilitate, or to be conducive or incidental to, the exercise of any power conferred by this paragraph; and

(h) to make such charge as the Department considers appropriate for anything that it does in the exercise of any such power and to calculate any such charge on any basis that it considers to be the appropriate commercial basis.

(3) The Department may give directions (having regard to the existing work of voluntary bodies)—

(a) for the exercise of any of those powers by any body constituted under the principal Order [F3 or the 2009 Act][F4 or the Health and Personal Social Services (Special Agencies) (Northern Ireland) Order 1990][F5 or the Northern Ireland Practice and Education Council for Nursing and Midwifery.]; and

(b) with respect to the manner in which any such body is to exercise any such power;

and it shall be the duty of the body in question to comply with the directions.

(4) The directions may provide that any power to which they relate shall be exercisable subject to any limitations specified in the directions.

(5) The directions may be varied or revoked by subsequent directions.

(6) The Department shall exercise the powers specified in paragraph (2)( c ) and ( d ) only if and to the extent that it is satisfied that anything which it proposes to do in the exercise of those powers does not fall within Article 31 of the principal Order.

(7) The Department shall exercise the powers specified in paragraph (2)( f ) only after consulting (to the extent that it appears to the Department to be practical) any person who appears to the Department to have an interest through his own previous research in the ideas or intellectual property in question as to whether the Department should exercise those powers and, if so, as to any financial arrangements.

(8) The Department shall exercise the powers specified in paragraph (2) only if and to the extent that the Department is satisfied that anything which it proposes to do—

(a) will not to a significant extent interfere with the performance by the Department of any duty imposed on it by the principal Order; and

(b) will not to a significant extent operate to the disadvantage of persons seeking or afforded admission or access to accommodation or services at hospitals vested in the Department for the purposes of its functions under the principal Order (whether as resident or non‐resident patients) otherwise than under Article 31 of the principal Order.

(9) For Articles 31 and 32 of the principal Order there shall be substituted the following Article—

“Accommodation and services for private patients

31.— (1) If the Department is satisfied, in the case of a hospital vested in it, that it is reasonable to do so, it may authorise accommodation and services at the hospital in question to be made available, to such extent as it may determine, for patients who give undertakings (or for whom undertakings are given) to pay, in respect of the accommodation and services made available, such charges as the Department may determine and may make and recover such charges as it may determine in respect of such accommodation and services and calculate them on any basis that it considers to be the appropriate commercial basis; but the Department shall do so only if and to the extent that it is satisfied that to do so—

(a) will not to a significant extent interfere with the performance by it of any duty imposed on it by this Order to provide accommodation or services of any kind; and

(b) will not to a significant extent operate to the disadvantage of persons seeking or afforded admission or access to accommodation or services at hospitals vested in the Department (whether as resident or non‐resident patients) otherwise than under this Article.

(2) The Department may allow accommodation and services to which an authorisation under paragraph (1) relates to be made available in connection with treatment, in pursuance of arrangements made by a medical practitioner or dental practitioner serving (whether in an honorary or paid capacity) on the staff of a hospital vested in it for the treatment of private patients of that practitioner.

(3) The Department shall revoke an authorisation under this Article only if and to the extent that it is satisfied that sufficient accommodation and facilitites for the private practice of medicine and dentistry are otherwise reasonably available (whether privately or at hospitals vested in it) to meet the reasonable demand for them in the area served by the hospital in question.”.

(10) In Article 33 of the principal Order—

(a) in paragraph (1) for the words from “who undertake, or in respect of whom an undertaking is given” to the end there shall be substituted the words “ to such extent as it may determine, and may recover such charges as it may determine in respect of such accommodation and calculate them on any basis that it considers to be the appropriate commercial basis. ” ; and

(b) paragraph (2) shall cease to have effect.

(11) In Article 41 of the principal Order after the words “provision of” in the second and fourth places where they occur there shall be inserted the words “ personal social ” .

(12) Expressions used in this Article and in the principal Order have the same meanings in this Article as in the principal Order.

F1 Words in Order substituted (1.4.2009) by Health and Social Care (Reform) Act (Northern Ireland) 2009 (c. 1), ss. 32, 34(3), Sch. 6 para. 1(1)(b) (with Sch. 6 para. 1(3)); S.R. 2009/114, art. 2

F2 1991 NI 1

F3 Words in art. 3(3)(a) inserted (1.4.2009) by Health and Social Care (Reform) Act (Northern Ireland) 2009 (c. 1), ss. 32, 34(3), Sch. 6 para. 11(1); S.R. 2009/114, art. 2

F4 1990 NI 3

F5 2002 c. 9 (NI)