22.11.10
Government supports transparency debate
The Government has intervened to support the NHS Alliance’s call for a debate on transparency.
The support came from Earl Howe, parliamentary under-secretary at the Department of Health, during a speech to the 13th NHS Alliance annual conference, The Cutting Edge, in Bournemouth.
Dr Michael Dixon, the Alliance’s chairman, told the conference that GPs should be allowed to take on work previously done in hospital as long as they opened their books to demonstrate absolute financial transparency.
Dr Dixon called for a new deal under which all providers of NHS services, including GPs, should be willing to open their books to show they are not ripping off the taxpayer.
Earl Howe told the conference: “As Michael has said, the mantra should be transparency, including transparency about practice accounts.”
He said the Department of Health would be “more specific fairly soon” about how much GP consortia would be allowed to spend on managing the commissioning of NHS services. He said: “We want the management allowance to be sufficient to enable commissioners to be abale to do their job properly. We are on the case.”
Tell us what you think – have your say below, or email us directly at [email protected]