18.01.11
MPs criticise approach taken to NHS reform
The health select committee, chaired by a former Tory health secretary, has criticised the way NHS reform is being implemented.
The committee’s report today welcomes the policy direction of the Government and GP commissioning in principle, but says the pace of reform is “high risk”.
It says: “The committee broadly shares the government's policy objectives, so it therefore welcomes the fact that these are substantially unchanged. It does not believe, however, that the approach adopted by the government represents the most efficient way of delivering those objectives.”
Its chairman, Stephen Dorrell, said: “ The value of effective and accountable healthcare commissioning has been discussed for 20 years. During that time the NHS has met the financial cost of a commissioning system, but has repeatedly failed to take full advantage of the opportunities which commissioning should create to improve the quality and value of the services provided.
“The challenging financial context in which the NHS now operates reinforces the requirement to take full advantage of these opportunities. Today’s report reflects the commitment of the Committee to engage in the debate about how this is best done."
In a speech on modernisation yesterday, David Cameron defended the reforms and said they would make healthcare the best it could be. He was criticised for an earlier slip of the tongue when he said failing to reform the NHS would lead to “second-rate” care – he meant “second-best”, he said.
Health secretary Andrew Lansley said the reforms built on what has come before.
The report says the NHS will need to make “unprecedented” efficiency savings to cope with rising demand and frozen budgets, will need more effective commissioning, and called the abolition of PCTs and shift to GP commissioning a “surprise” that created uncertainty.
The report said a key challenge was that commissioners “need to be able to reconcile conflicts between enhanced patient choice and the commissioner’s own financial and clinical priorities.”
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