> So the good news is that there will be no change to the the status and responsibilities and organisation of PCTs an SHAs. This seems like a minor concession if does not also include I guess most the trappings of the new “Patient-led NHS” which includes commissioning, tendering and widening the spread of providers, and some limited but growing involvement of the GPs in commissioning services.
But if that’s the case' this is hardly the promised "once in a generation opportunity to ensure that a properly resourced NHS is clinically led, patient-centred and locally accountable" seems a trifle exaggerated. (Still, I guess for those of us who aren’t patients and don’t have patients in the family, it is reassuring to see that the patient is now given an entirely passive role in this new vision….)
However am I the only inequalogist that could see some merit in Conservatives suggestion of an independent commission? And if we are talking “big tent” politics here why not bring in the Liberals and hypothecate the first £1,700 (equating to the current per capita NHS spend pa) of our personal tax and national insurance as a national health insurance payment to the state for which the independent commission would have responsibility? We could quite quickly see the development of an NHS directed by accountable people who are allowed think beyond the fiscal year or parliamentary term, with a realistic and realisable dividend from reducing health equalities.
Sorry if this sounds a bit radical and grandiose, but I feel I have to overcome my cynicism since this is a once-in-a-generation thing…
Mike Hughes
> From: alex scott-samuel <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 2007/07/04 Wed PM 11:28:18 BST
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Johnson announces major review of NHS
>
> Johnson announces major review of NHS
> Wed Jul 4, 2007 3:02PM BST
>
> By Tim Castle
>
> LONDON (Reuters) - New Health Secretary Alan Johnson announced a
> major review of the National Health Service on Wednesday and
> offered an olive branch to the medical profession by promising
> to stop further NHS reorganisation.
>
> He acknowledged that morale was low among doctors and nurses who
> were "fed up with top-down instructions and weary of restructuring".
> Photo
>
> The "unprecedented" review of the NHS will be conducted by
> leading surgeon Ara Darzi, appointed a government minister last
> week as Gordon Brown took over as prime minister.
>
> The review will consult patients, medical staff and the public.
>
> "This is a once in a generation opportunity to ensure that a
> properly resourced NHS is clinically led, patient-centred and
> locally accountable," Johnson told the House of Commons.
>
> He said 10 years of health reforms under the Labour
> administration had been an "emergency room" approach, which had
> brought about substantial achievements.
>
> "However, we must acknowledge that we have not managed to keep
> the profession on board as we have steered a path through the
> turbulent waters of change," Johnson said.
>
> "I can announce today that there will be no further centrally
> dictated top-down restructuring to primary care trusts and
> strategic health authorities for the foreseeable future."
>
> Labour has poured record sums of money into the NHS in England,
> reaching 90 billion pounds last year.
>
> But its insistence on central targets to reduce waiting lists
> and cut overspending at hospitals, and frequent organisational
> changes have exasperated NHS staff.
>
> Last year Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt was booed by nurses
> at their annual conference after saying the NHS was enjoying its
> "best year ever".
> Photo
>
> Johnson said Darzi's review would make an interim report in
> October -- in time for consideration for the Treasury's own
> long-term review of departmental spending -- with a full report
> by July next year.
>
> Opposition Conservative Health Spokesman Andrew Lansley called
> on Johnson to remove the health service fully from political
> interference by putting it under an independent board.
>
> "The only thing the secretary of state seems to have understood
> is that morale in the NHS is at rock bottom," Lansley said.
>
> http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKL0463727320070704
>
> © Reuters 2007. All rights reserved.
>
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