The notes need to be read in conjunction with the Act. They are not, and are not meant to be, a comprehensive description of the Act. So where a section or part of a section does not seem to require any explanation or comment, none is given. This provision has existed in road traffic legislation for more than sixty years and is currently found in sections 157 and 158 of the Road Traffic Act 1988. However it is not supported by any central administrative arrangements for collection of the charges due.
Action is taken locally by hospitals and performance is patchy.
Nationally the amount of money recovered is far short of the potential sum. In his Budget speech of 2 July 1997 the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the Government would take steps to recover the full costs of treatment in these cases. THE ACT 5. The Act's purpose is to provide a national administrative system to ensure that all cases in which recoupment of NHS charges is possible are identified and that the charges are collected and passed on to the hospitals which provided treatment. It also provides for the method of calculating the cost to the NHS to be changed by regulation in order to reflect more closely the actual costs of treatment.