Commentary on Sections Part 2 –Standards Healthcare provided by and for NHS bodies Section 51: Reviews: England and Wales
156.This section gives the CHAI a function of conducting reviews across England and Wales of health care generally or of particular kinds of health care, for example, national cancer services. CHAI may undertake such reviews under its own initiative or at the request of the Secretary of State, who must first consult the Assembly before making a request.
157.Sections 51(6), 52(7), 53(9), 54(9) and 57(5) enable the Secretary of State, after consulting the CHAI, to issue regulations making provision as to any procedure that must be followed before the award of any performance rating under section 50 or publication of any report under sections 52 to 54 in order to give the reviewed body time to comment and for any comments to be considered by CHAI. Such regulations could specify, for example, the numbers of days that NHS bodies would have to respond to draft reports issued by CHAI under differing circumstances, and could in particular require the CHAI to take into account any material observations made by NHS bodies about apparent factual errors in draft reports.