25.09.14
GP leaders’ ‘grave concerns’ about Labour’s hospital-led NHS proposals
GP leaders have “grave concerns” about the NHS reforms proposed by Andy Burnham, saying they could be destructive and distracting to the health service and “simply will not work”.
In his speech to the Labour Party conference yesterday, the shadow health minister outlined “a rescue plan for shattered services” and how he plans to join up services by bringing social care into the NHS.
He said: “We will ask hospital trusts and other NHS bodies to evolve into NHS integrated care organisations, working from home to hospital coordinating all care – physical, mental and social.”
However, in response to the speech, Maureen Baker, chair of the Royal College of GPs, warned: “His plans could destroy everything that is great and that our patients value about general practice and could lead to the demise of family doctoring as we know it.”
She added: “GPs want to work as part of wider clinical teams to ensure that the NHS can provide a single service to each patient, instead of the fragmented approach that too often is experienced by patients today. But it makes no sense for hospitals – organisations that provide acute, intermittent and specialist care – to lead on the delivery of person-centred, continuous and co-ordinated care.”
Baker did admit that there were things GPs could do better and that general practice needs to modernise, but she continued on to say: “It is critical that any changes must not sabotage the unique relationship we have with our patients and the way that we tailor services to our local populations.
“The College is positive about integrated care. We are positive about working with colleagues right across the NHS. But the model that Andy Burnham is proposing simply will not work.”
In his speech Burnham also pledged to introduce extra support for carers such as providing them with a single point of contact in the health service, and protected funding for GP-prescribed carer’s breaks.
He also promised support to allow people to die at home, where clinically possible, increasing the number of palliative care nurses.
The National Council for Palliative Care welcomed Burnham’s proposals, Simon Chapman, director of public and parliamentary engagement said: “Supporting more of us to be cared for and die in our place of choice, which for many of us is our own home, is a key part of this. We welcome Andy Burnham's desire to make this happen, through his proposals for greater investment in home care capacity and support for carers, as well as joined up health and social care services that work better together.”
However the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, Rob Webster, had a more sobering view of bringing in social care to the NHS. While pursuing joined-up service delivery around individual patients and local communities is something he believes everyone in the NHS would support, he believes it may be difficult to achieve.
He said: “Integrating services and 'bringing in social care' is easy to say, however, and much more difficult to deliver. There are significant financial and structural consequences that need to be managed. We look forward to further discussion on these with the Labour health team on how they would achieve this.
"What is clear is that a messy structural reorganisation of the administration of healthcare will get in the way of changes to healthcare delivery, and must be avoided at all costs. I am also keen to understand his plans for how trusts become accountable care organisations. This too should benefit patients and not be based on a top-down structural solution.
"What is paramount, and what the NHS needs to focus on, is that the health care and social care services people receive are well co-ordinated, no matter which organisation they are commissioned or provided by. There is room in the National Health Service for more than one way to do things, as long as the standards are high and the focus is on compassionate care for patients.”
Health and social care charity coalition National Voices also welcomed the focus on integration and the pledge of free care for the people at the end of their life, but questioned other elements of the plans.
Director of policy, Don Redding, said: “We do have some concerns that, under Labour’s vision, it appears that this will be hospital-led and NHS dominated. Health and wellbeing are produced by many local actors and we also need national government to enable local leaders to collaborate on reshaping services, including patient and community leaders.”
(Image: c. Tim Goode/EMPICS Entertainment)
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