05.07.12
Lansley publishes draft mandate to NHS
The NHS is to focus on people rather than systems and processes, the Department of Health has announced.
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley published new care objectives for improving healthcare in the draft mandate to the NHS Commissioning Board.
These centre on standards to prevent premature death, support for people with long-term conditions to look after themselves, supporting people through recovery, ensuring patients have a positive experience of care in the NHS, treating people in a clean, safe environment and protecting them from unnecessary harm.
Other objectives include clearer accountability, joining up of different services and making the NHS more focused on preventing illness. More patient choice and involvement in treatment decisions are also proposed.
Lansley said: “We want to help the NHS to be the best it can be. The modernisation of the NHS will help to deliver better health, better care and better value for money.
“In the past there has been too much focus on systems and processes rather than people. For the first time we will focus on holding the health service to account for results that make a difference to people.
“The future of the NHS will be based on transparency, autonomy and the deep values that have seen it through six decades of change. Parliament and the public will, like never before, be able to hold the Secretary of State and the NHS to account for what it actually does for patients.”
Professor Malcolm Grant, chair of the NHS Commissioning Board Authority said:
“In focusing explicitly on outcomes – such as reductions in premature deaths, and improving the experience of patients – rather than on processes and operational targets, it kicks off a fresh approach that has the potential to truly liberate the NHS.
“The idea is to give clinical leaders the freedom to innovate rather than tying them to centrally determined processes and subjecting them to detailed day to day political control.”
A consultation on the mandate will run until September 26, with the final care objectives to be published this autumn. The objectives will come into force in April 2013.
To view the mandate, visit: www.dh.gov.uk/health/files/2012/07/A-draft-mandate-to-the-NHS-Commissioning-Board.pdf
Tell us what you think – have your say below, or email us directly at [email protected]