07.02.12
Fears for doctors freedom after reforms
Two prominent supporters of the health reforms have expressed fears that local doctors will not have sufficient freedom in the new clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). This follows increased opposition to the Bill, with calls for the legislation to be scrapped from medical organisations and unions.
Dr Charles Alessi and Dr Michael Dixon, from the NHS Alliance and the National Association of Primary Care organisations and senior members of the NHS Clinical Commissioning Coalition (CCC) were originally supporters for the reforms.
But as PCTs and SHAs are due to be abolished next year, and replaced with CCGs under the control of the NHS National Commissioning Board (NCB), they now fear that the current bureaucracy will just be substituted for a different system.
They argue that there is a risk that the NHSCB will replicate ‘more of the same’, because many of the people involved in this Board will be the same, potentially leading to a repetition of current management.
Dr Dixon said: “The CCC takes the view that, with most CCGs seeing the National Commissioning Board itself as their greatest risk at present, the NHSCB will now need to work much harder to convince primary care clinicians, clinical commissioners and CCGs and their leaders that they are not simply pawns in strategy of implementation or largely see ‘business as usual’.”
Dr Alessi commented: “What we are hearing and seeing are the same old messages and the same old structures, albeit with new nomenclatures. If we put the same ingredients into the mix, the likelihood is that we shall deliver the same inefficient environment and outcomes. This is insupportable in an economy of tight financial restraint. Something will have to give.”
The Department of Health responded: “By handing power and responsibility for choosing and purchasing services to doctors and nurses on the ground, we are shifting the decision making closer to patients and building on the trusted role that GPs and other front line professionals already play throughout the NHS.
“The NHS Commissioning Board will provide national standards, but doctors and nurses will have the freedom to make decisions about their patients and their organisations.”
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