31.01.12
Reforms attacked by health journals
The NHS reforms have been labelled an ‘unholy mess’ in an editorial published by the British Medical Journal, the Health Service Journal and the Nursing Times. They call for the Bill to be dropped, to save further damage to the health service.
The editorial reads: “The Government’s NHS reforms have proved divisive and destructive. They have slowed the improvement of NHS services and cost theUKmoney that it can ill afford.
“We need a broad public debate on the principles that should underpin the NHS, how decisions on priorities should be made in a cash-limited system, and what role clinicians and private sector organisations could and should play.
“Let us try to salvage some good from this damaging upheaval and resolve never to repeat it.”
In another editorial, Kieran Walshe, professor of Health Policy and Management atManchesterBusinessSchool, says that abandoning the Bill now would save just over £1bn in 2013 through cutting administration and set-up costs.
Walshe writes: “They could then plan to accomplish much of their intended reform agenda – greater patient choice, more GP involvement in commissioning, increased plurality and competition in healthcare provision – using existing legislative provisions. And the NHS could get on with delivering healthcare to patients, and the serious business of finding ways to do more with less.”
However, a Department of Health spokesperson said the reforms were based on NHS staff wishes: “It’s completely untrue to suggest that dropping the Bill would save the NHS money. Our plans will reduce needless bureaucracy by a third and save £4.5bn over the course of this parliament and £1.5bn every year afterwards. Every penny saved will be reinvested in frontline care for patients.”
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