Member News
The government has published its plans for a radical overhaul of the health services, bringing a patient-centred NHS a "step closer to reality".
The Health and Social Care Bill will place GPs in charge of almost 80 per cent of the NHS budget, to commission services for patients from 2013.
It will bring an end to England's 152 primary care trusts (PCTs) and 10 strategic health authorities, reducing NHS management costs by 45 per cent.
GP consortias will take on responsibility for commissioning the healthcare they deem appropriate for their patients.
The process will be overseen by a new NHS commissioning board with new "health and wellbeing" boards set to be created.
A new body called Public Health England will be established to improve public health care.
It will bring together experts from public health bodies such as the Health Protection Agency and the National Treatment Agency as part of the Department of Health.
The Bill also requires all hospitals in England to become foundation trust hospitals, with the freedom to earn more finances by treating certain numbers of private patients.
Health secretary Andrew Lansley said modernising the NHS is "a necessity, not an option".
"In order to meet rising need in the future, we need to make changes. We need to take steps to improve health outcomes, bringing them up to the standards of the best international healthcare systems, and to bring down the NHS money spent on bureaucracy," he said.
"This legislation will deliver changes that will improve outcomes for patients and save the NHS £1.7bn every year – money that will be reinvested into services for patients."
On Tuesday a report from the House of Commons health select committee warned the coalition that the NHS had not been given enough time to prepare for the reforms.
The cross-party group of MPs said that commissioning cannot be entirely left to GPs, who "have a major role as a catalyst for this process, but not as the ultimate arbiters of all commissioning decisions".
ePolitix.com members respond to the Health Bill:
Member Response: Chris Askew, chief executive, Breakthrough Breast Cancer
"We have to make sure this dramatic overhaul of the NHS leads to better care and improved survival rates for breast cancer patients.
"It is paramount this new system supports patients and doesn’t give them an information overdose at what is an extremely stressful time.
"There are many troubling questions the government needs to answer. How would the NHS cope if the 46,000 breast cancer patients diagnosed each year only want to go to the best hospitals? Will specialist nurses start disappearing in efficiency savings? Will GPs get the right support to make up for their understandable lack of commissioning expertise?
"The devil, as always, is in the details and is where these reforms will ultimately succeed or fail."
Member Response: Betty McBride, policy & communications director, British Heart Foundation
While the Government is focussed on structures and cost savings they mustn't forget the patients who will be at the sharp end of these reforms.
Only this week a new study highlighted how heart failure patients were dying needlessly because they weren't receiving expert cardiac care.
If the Government wants to make outcomes for patients the measure of success, then these are exactly the issues they have to address.
Member Response: David Fleming, national officer for health, Unite
It is clear that one of the biggest influences on Tory ideology regarding health policy has been the massive and insidious lobbying by the private healthcare companies, which have opened their cheque books for David Cameron big-time.
The bill is a charter for private profit at the expense of patient care and should be strongly resisted. The public - and that includes those on the moderate wing of the Conservative Party - needs to wake up to the scale of the changes proposed.
Member Response: Ruth Spellman, ceo, Chartered Management Institute
We understand government's need to save money in order to meet demand and maintain investment in new treatments and technology. However, to do this and deliver major structural reforms, there needs to be a major investment in leadership and management skills. We know that only one in five managers in the UK has a management qualification, and with GPs taking control of an £80bn budget, now is the time to focus on practical ways of improving management and leadership in the NHS.
We look forward to working with government to support NHS managers and GPs through these major structural changes, in order to realise the business benefits of professional management standards.
Member Response: Cllr. David Rogers, chairman of the Community Wellbeing Board, Local Government Association
The government health reforms will fundamentally alter the landscape of healthcare and pose significant challenges for delivery. We are pleased to see many of local government’s consultation proposals seem to have been included in this bill.
However, it is uncertain whether funding will be sufficient and we seek urgent clarification. It appears councils could receive less than the new central body Public Health England, but have much more responsibility. We will thoroughly scrutinise this bill to ensure it mirrors the government’s stated intention of freeing up councils and communities to decide how best to improve health and wellbeing locally, without needless interference from the centre.
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