04.04.12
A new path for NHS Wales
The NHS in Wales needs a radical new path to ensure doctors put people before profits, according to a new report.
‘A New Path Entirely’, by former GP Julian Tudor Hart, suggests that the NHS must eliminate consultant private practice and end GPs’ role as independent contractors. A greater role in public health issues is also necessary, as is more democratic local accountability.
These elements of the NHS obstruct development and delivery of sustainable and affordable care, Dr Hart recommends.
The report reads: “As the UK shadow cabinet continues to dither in their response to the reforms in England, it will be up to Wales to lead the way in continuing Aneurin Bevan’s dream to end trade in healthcare as a profitable commodity, and develop an NHS paid for by everyone according to their wealth, giving to everyone according to their need.
“Bureaucratic accountability and fear of litigation has grown monstrously since 1983, but opportunities for simple exchange of information and ideas between staff and users have been left to survive however they can through increasingly bureaucratised processes of work and legalised processes of complaint.
“To be affordable and sustainable over the next 20 years, participative democratisation will be the most urgent of all projects for Wales NHS, if only to get and retain enough electoral support to make continued progressive change possible.”
A spokesperson for the health minister, Lesley Griffiths, said: “As the minister has made repeatedly clear, the Welsh Labour Government remains true to the founding principles of Aneurin Bevan’s NHS – a comprehensive healthcare service that is free at the point of need. InWales, we have taken this a step further by the introduction of free prescriptions and free hospital car parking.
“Our approach is based on a model of integration and collaboration, rather than the market-based approach of competition and privatisation being pursued inEngland. Together for Health is our five year vision for the NHS inWales.
“We want a NHS that is based around community services and placing prevention, quality and transparency at the heart of healthcare.”
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