23.12.14
Dalton Review turnaround proposals should be pursued – BMA
Plans for high-performing NHS bodies to help their less-successful counterparts have won the backing of the British Medical Association (BMA).
In response to the ‘credentialing’ system proposed in the recent Dalton Review, the BMA said that too often money is wasted on external consultants when there is an ‘excellent pool’ of knowledge and expertise already in the NHS.
The latest report, commissioned by the Department of Health and led by Salford Royal Foundation Trust chief executive Sir David Dalton, recommended that a new credentialing process, to recognise successful organisations capable of spreading their systems and processes to other organisations, should be developed by July 2015.
Once agreed, Monitor should be responsible for the process and the first wave of credentialing should be completed by October 2015.
However, the review warns many of the hospital trusts that have not already reached foundation status will never achieve the required standards, and it recommends some groups of poorly performing trusts should be ‘batched’ for takeover, franchise or reorganisation.
Dr Mark Porter, chair of the BMA council, said: “We’re now seeing some interesting debate on how organisational forms could evolve in the NHS to take it forward, with this Dalton Review and also the NHS England Five Year Forward View.
“We must remember, though, the gigantic resource gap that is opening up in the NHS, a gap that calls for proper resourcing for the demands placed on the health service as well as new organisational forms.”
He added that local commissioners and providers need to come together to plan for the future sustainability of NHS hospitals and to break down the barriers between different parts of the health service in order to deliver more integrated and coordinated patient care.
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