NHS review

ePolitix.com Stakeholders comment on the news that health minister Lord Darzi has published the final report in his next stage review of the NHS.

The review sets out plans for the next 10 years of the National Health Service in England.

Government response

Ben Bradshaw, health minister, said: "Today we published important proposals to make the NHS fairer and give more power to patients. They were drawn up in consultation with the public and thousands of health professionals at local level. Once again, the Tories are opposing them for opposition's sake.

"The Tories have said they will reverse extended GP opening hours and they oppose new GP health centres. The Tories say they will scrap all targets including those guaranteeing a maximum 18-week wait for an operation or a 4-hour maximum wait in A and E. That would take us back to the bad old days of horrendously long waits.

"While Labour is working with people, doctors, nurses and other NHS staff to further improve the NHS, the Tories have nothing positive to say. David Cameron's health policy is a content-free zone."

Party response: Liberal Democrat

Norman Lamb, health spokesperson, said: "This statement smacks of a motherhood and apple pie prescription for the NHS, filled with inevitable New Labour jargon such as the ‘clinical dashboard’.

"When the dust settles people will see that little has changed and that the system of command and control diktat by Whitehall lives on.

"This statement says nothing about the scandalous discrimination suffered by those with mental health problems or the health inequalities that continue to scar our country."

Stakeholder response: Age Concern

To send a comment to Age Concern click here

Gordon Lishman, director general, said: "Shifting the focus of the NHS away from a target-driven culture to one that listens and respects the views and experiences of service users makes good sense for everyone.

"Older people are the biggest users of the NHS, yet services are not currently set up to meet their needs. Measuring performance based on what older people think will help to improve the quality of care they receive.

"Putting compassion at the heart of NHS reforms should ensure that older people are treated with dignity and respect."

NHS Constitution

"Treating patients, especially older people with compassion should be basic practice for all NHS staff. To deliver this, the planned NHS constitution needs to be explicitly based on promoting human rights and stamping out ageism in the NHS.

"The fact that your postcode determines what care you receive when accessing NHS treatment is scandalous. Every household in the country should know what standard of care they have the right to expect from the NHS, regardless of where they live."

Polyclinics

"Older people are not against the idea of having community health and social care services under one roof, as long as they can maintain their relationship with their own GP. 

"If the government can guarantee that the GP-patient relationship will be protected and that access will not be reduced, this could bring real benefits to older people."

Stakeholder response: Eye Health Alliance

To send a comment to the Eye Health Alliance click here

A spokesperson for the Eye Health Alliance said: "We welcome this report as the opportunity for a new partnership between the NHS and the optical profession. The professional and representative optical bodies have already set up a new support unit to help local optical committees, PCTs and commissioning groups build such relationships."

"The aim must be to improve eye health by highlighting the importance of regular sight testing and encouraging the development of more integrated services with hospital, GP and community care using the enhanced services flexibilities in the new GOS contract."

"We welcome the emphasis on preventative services. As 70 per cent of blindness is preventable, the moral and business case for investing more in eye care in the community is overwhelming as the recent UK Vision Strategy has made clear. A new partnership between the optical professions - signalled by Darzi - should help bring this about."

"The Eye Health Alliance has called for greater investment in community eye care services. With an ageing population the number of people who will have an eye condition or visual impairment is set to increase, placing a greater demand not only on eye care services but rehabilitative social services and secondary health services.

"Early detection through regular eye tests and early treatment will therefore be crucial to reduce the number of people with avoidable sight loss and to reduce the burdens on the NHS."

Stakeholder response: Help the Aged

To send a comment to Help the Aged click here

Paul Cann, director of policy, said: "It's vital that any reform of the NHS takes into account the needs of its largest and growing population of users - older people.

"The government recently announced a commitment to focus on preventing ill health in older age, this is a development which Help the Aged welcomes.

"Some of the most vulnerable members of our society rely on the NHS to take care of them. But inequalities persist in access to and quality of healthcare. Despite many nurses and doctors working against the odds to give their best, older people are too often forced to suffer services which fall below the basic standards of care in areas such as nutrition and privacy.  

"It is all very well for the government to promise legal rights and new constitutional arrangements for the NHS - but the real question is whether an older person engaging with the healthcare system can be confident that they will be treated with dignity and respect. 

"Achieving this goal will require much more than paper promises. It will require concerted effort and a determined drive to change the deep-rooted ageist attitudes which underlie the indignity so many older people face."

Stakeholder response: Intellect

To send a comment to Intellect click here

Nick Kalisperas, director of Intellect's transformational government programme, said: "Lord Darzi's 'bold and ambitious' plan will only be successful if all the pieces of the jigsaw fit, and information provision for providers and commissioners is an essential piece.  We all recognise the complexities and challenges of making the best use of technology to improve healthcare.  If the government wants to translate Lord Darzi’s vision into reality, it will need to extend the use of technology to complement the existing National Programme initiatives.  Technology suppliers are ready for the challenge and propose a coalition between information systems suppliers and the NHS to ensure healthcare professionals have the information they need to deliver high quality care for all."

Jeremy Nettle, Chair of the Intellect Healthcare Council, said: "The National Programme is not just about IT; it is a transformation programme for the NHS that will underpin system reform and clinical changes which, in turn, must be supported by a ruthless approach to standards, if it is to provide real clinical benefits. Tremendous progress has been made in improving technical interoperability. However, this report suggests that our members must continue to strive to achieve holistic interoperability."

Stakeholder response: Royal College of General Practitioners

To send a comment to the RCGP click here

Professor Steve Field, RCGP chairman, said: "The Royal College of General Practitioners is committed to promoting high-quality patient-centred care based on a partnership between patients and clinicians. Therefore, we welcome the next stage review's ambitious focus on quality in primary care and right across the NHS.

"The recognition - based on evidence - of the central role of the GP and in supporting GPs so that we can lead the changes is most welcome. We also welcome the commitment to review the length of GP training so that we can deliver the RCGP training curriculum and produce the highly trained GPs needed to deliver Lord Darzi's ambitious agenda.

"The overarching review and its primary and community care strategy rightly moves the focus of the NHS towards helping people keep healthy and preventing disease whilst also re-emphasising the need to move care closer to the patient.

"While supporting the direction of travel set out by Lord Darzi nationally, we are concerned that local PCT management might not be able to deliver. The lack of engagement with the RCGP and other professional bodies at SHA and PCT level during the initial phase of the Darzi Review was disappointing.

"We look to the Department of Health to ensure that local NHS managers engage with professional bodies, patients and the wider public to ensure successful implementation. This is an opportunity not to be lost and if implemented successfully, the review should do much to improve the health of the population in England."

Stakeholder response: Royal College of Physicians

To send a comment to the RCP click here

Professor Ian Gilmore, President of the Royal College of Physicians, said: "Our initial impressions are positive. We were pleased to contribute to the review and are happy that Lord Darzi is proposing a greater emphasis on quality in measuring NHS performance. Doctors have contributed to the review - now we need to make sure they are fully involved in implementing the plans locally and nationally."

Immediately following the publication of the Next Steps Review, the Royal College of Physicians highlighted three particular aspects of Lord Darzi's report:

Quality care for all

"We agree that change, and health services in general, should be driven by good evidence about the best clinical practice and the results this achieves for patients. Therefore, we welcome Lord Darzi's proposal to move to a health system fundamentally based on quality and outcomes.

"Our recent report on Acute Care recommended the development of national clinical performance indicators to benchmark and improve performance."

Establishment of Medical Education for England

"The Royal College welcomes the establishment of Medical Education for England as an independent advisory body. We are particularly pleased it will be chaired by an independent doctor. The MEE should also help to ensure the implementation of the recommendations made by the Tooke inquiry in its inquiry into MMC and MTAS.

"There are many challenges facing the health workforce, not least that of dealing with the forthcoming reductions in the working hours of junior doctors. It is good that Lord Darzi has highlighted the need to strengthen workforce planning and make sure we train the right numbers of people with the right skills to deliver first-class health care."

Leadership

"The Royal College of Physicians supports the idea of more doctors being fully involved in managing the health service. We have a range of medical leadership programmes and recently, in collaboration with Birkbeck College, we have introduced an MSc in Medical Leadership, aimed specifically at those doctors aspiring to the highest levels of health management.

"We also believe that clinical leadership is required for the successful commissioning of health services that lies at the heart of Lord Darzi's vision."

Stakeholder response: Skills for Health

To send a comment to Skills for Health click here

John Rogers, chief executive, said: "We are wholly supportive of Lord Darzi’s report and, in particular, the ‘NHS Next Stage Review: A High Quality Workforce’. Having been closely involved in the consultation and development process we are especially delighted to see the emphasis on the development of a more flexible workforce and the attention paid to the whole workforce with the inclusion on the Skills Pledge and further support for apprenticeships. The Sector Skills Agreement and Skills for Health’s strategy is totally aligned to this direction of travel. We look forward to working further with colleagues in the Department of Health and across healthcare employers to support the implementation of these proposals."