I am sure that there are cuts planned, but I am not surprised you got little
useful information from your survery.
I think you need to understand that many Community Health services are now
completely separate entities (usually run as Trusts now) and no longer
governed by Health Authorities.
Health Authorities can, of course, still withdraw funding from these community
health service trusts. This can happen in two ways -
1) For non-fundholders patients - they can simply reduce their funding
allocation from the HA budget
2) For fundholders patients - they slice a portion off the budget allocation
provided to fundholders for community services.
Usually these cuts are termed "efficiency savings" or "move towards
capitation" or some such euphemism for the word "cut". Funding deficiencies
could possibly be topped up by fundholders from other sources if they wish.
(For example, at present, we are supporting our community services with funds
diverted from our prescribing budget .)
Nothing in the NHS is simple, and you have to learn to understand "double
speak" to understand anything at all.
--
Ruth (feeling cynical today)
http://www.stamford.co.uk/littlesurgery/
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From: [log in to unmask] on behalf of Michael Durham
Sent: Saturday, January 31, 1998 05:11
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Community health services
With apologies for cross-posting: this has been sent only to lists where
list members showed an interest.
I wanted to find out the extent to which Community Health services around
the country are likely to be cut back in the coming financial year. This
arose because some information sent to me seemed to indicate the cuts this
year could be deeper than before, which would be ironic in view of the
commitment in the NHS White Paper (and the forthcoming public health Green
Paper) to prevention, local commissioning and so on.
We did our own telephone survey of health authorities but the results were
inconclusive. Around seven or eight HAs of those who replied said they were
actually cutting clinics or selling off buildings, the rest said no change.
I am not planning a story just at present.
Community health services seems to be a very complex subject and I wonder if
our survey was just too simplistic, or targeted at the wrong people, or done
too early - perhaps we should try the same thing after April.
Thanks for the helpful tips and information I have already received, and if
anyone has any further ideas about whether this is worth investigating at
some point in the future (and how), I will be happy to receive them!
----------------------------------------------------
Michael Durham,
Health Correspondent,
The Observer,
119 Farringdon Road
London EC1R 3ER
United Kingdom
(tel) +44 1 71 713 4283 (fax) +44 1 71 713 4250
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