Press Release

For immediate release
Wednesday 2 October 2002

IoD BACKS NHS FOUNDATION TRUSTS

In its response to the Labour Party National Policy Forum Consultation Document, Improving Health And Social Care, the Institute of Directors (IoD) has urged the Government to go ahead with a first wave of foundation trusts for the delivery of NHS healthcare.

As long ago as early 2000, the IoD was saying that the NHS was too big to run from Whitehall, and that many more freedoms were needed to unleash the creativity of the million or so people who work in the NHS. The IoD has welcomed the moves by the Department of Health (DoH) to give greater autonomy to NHS healthcare trusts.

Geraint Day, Health and Environment Policy Adviser at the IoD said:

"We note with some concern the tone of some of the present public debate. If it is recognised (and the DoH and certain commentators have acknowledgedthis) that greater autonomy and diversity of publicly funded healthcare is needed, then a logical conclusion of the DoH's earned autonomy concepts must be far greater freedoms for NHS trusts, for example.

"One must start somewhere. This is why adequately conducted pilots must be allowed to proceed, taking the first batch of candidates for foundation trust status to begin with. Of course there may be problems along the way, but the alternative is the stultifying and vast waste of resources of the present attempts to run the NHS from Whitehall and via a vast array of quangos. The people of the UK, as well as healthcare workers themselves, deserve better than that."

Ends

Notes to Editors:

1. The IoD has set out in a number of policy papers detailed concerns and advice concerning ways to reform the NHS:

Healthcare in the UK: the need for reform, IoD Policy Paper,Ruth Lea,
February 2000, revised edition, June 2000, IoD, London;
Management, Mutuality and Risk: Better Ways to Run the National Health Service, IoD Research Paper, Geraint Day, IoD, October 2000;
Healthcare in the UK: the need for reform, Economic Comment, Ruth Lea, IoD, October 2000.
New paths for the provision of healthcare, Comment, GeraintDay, IoD, July 2001;
Report of a Survey of Views on Healthcare Provision, Geraint Day, IoD, October 2001.

All are available from www.iod.com/policy/papers .

2. The IoD is continuing to take an active interest in NHS reform. Thisincludes the corporate governance aspects of the proposed NHS foundation trusts.

3. The IoD (Institute of Directors) is a non-political independentorganisation with over 55,000 members. In addition to its wide range of business services, the IoD provides an effective voice to represent the interests of its members to government and key opinion-formers. It also brings the experience of business leaders to bear on the conduct of public affairs.

Contact Points:
Richard Taylor, Press Officer, tel: 020 7451 3264
mobile and out of hours: 07721 734886

David Marshall, Director of Public Affairs, tel: 020 7451 3263
mobile and out of hours: 0776 4883420
email: press@iod.com
web: www.iod.com