10.02.11
New policy forum launched for NHS Confederation
The NHS Confederation has announced a new policy forum to assert the voice of the NHS on strategic issues facing the service, including financial and political challenges. The forum will ensure the organisation’s strategy and work programme properly reflects the priorities of the NHS, as well as complementing policy analysis.
It will also work to strengthen processes for listening to the NHS Confederation’s members as well as bringing in perspectives from partner organisations representing local government, clinicians and patients.
The forum will be chaired by NHS Confederation chair Sir Keith Pearson. The first meeting of the forum, held last week, asked the Confederation to prioritise public understanding of NHS finances, quality of care focusing on caring for elderly people, improving NHS leadership and taking the long view for healthcare rather than simply over electoral cycles.
NHS Confederation chief executive Mike Farrar said: “This is a great platform for the NHS to step up and speak out about the challenges we are facing. We are currently facing one of the most serious financial squeezes the service has ever faced and we want to ensure that the leadership of the NHS can speak out about the big issues facing health care.
“We have to raise the public debate over health care beyond the narrow politics and centralist perspectives. The NHS must rise above the constant short term political ping pong and the end of year scrambling.
“Organisational and clinical management in the NHS are the back bone to its success. The new policy forum will put a powerful case to government that you simply can’t discriminate between ‘bureaucrats’ and ‘clinicians’. Good care is provided by skilled clinicians and managers working together as leaders of the NHS acting in the interests of patients.
“This is our opportunity to change the culture within the NHS that has proliferated over recent years and to establish a collaborative, intelligent, leadership approach that will be fit for the next decade.”
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