24.01.12
Health Committee criticises NHS reforms
Fresh criticism has been raised against the Health & Social Care Bill, as the Health Committee suggested that reforms were hindering the NHS’s ability to cut costs whilst preserving services.
The NHS needs to find £20bn efficiency savings by 2014/15.
The Committee examined public expenditure in health and social care, and found that there was too much emphasis on short term solutions and ‘salami-slicing’. They claim that more integration with social care is needed, but this is becoming more difficult as councils are increasingly restricting access to services.
Stephen Dorrell, who chairs the committee, said: “The priority is to deliver more efficient care, in order to meet demands placed upon the system - and the implementation of the bill has to fit in around that. Patients have to come first, within the resources available.
“The only way you can meet the demands placed upon the system by patients is by changing not the way the system is managed, but the system itself.”
This follows unions representing nurses and midwives joining the BMA in opposing the Bill last week. The BMA claimed that the shake-up was a ‘distraction’.
Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of BMA Council, said: “There is still time for the Government to withdraw the Health and Social Care Bill – a Bill which an increasing number of health professionals are opposed to – and work with healthcare professionals and others to agree a more pragmatic way forward.
“Better integration of care is key to improving patient care yet many of the implications of the Health and Social Care Bill, including the Government’s focus on competition, will make this harder to achieve.”
Mike Farrar, the NHS Confederation’s chief executive, added: “This report starkly highlights the weight of financial pressure that is bearing down on the NHS. It shows the uncertainty people are working with and how dangerous it could be for short-termism to dominate the response.
“The NHS faces a once in a generation financial challenge that is still to be explained properly to the public. If we are to keep the NHS sustainable in the long term, we need to fundamentally reorganise the way we deliver care in the best interest of patients.”
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley responded: “As the report acknowledges, our modernisation plans allow us to make significant savings, not least in reducing the needless bureaucracy. Only when we give nurses and doctors more power will we see local NHS services reshaped to suit patients so they can see who they want where they want.”
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