IoDwelcomes broad thrust of health bill

The Institute of Directors (IoD) voiced its approval of theGovernment's Health and Social Care Bill, published today. The Bill recommendsthe creation of Foundation Trusts to improve the delivery of NHS healthcare.

The IoD said it had long argued the NHS was too big to runfrom Whitehall, and that many more freedoms were needed to unleash thecreativity of the million or so people who work in the organisation.

More specifically, the IoD has argued over the last threeyears that NHS trusts delivering healthcare should become independentnon-profit making mutuals. The IoD also proposed that the NHS as such wouldbecome the regulator of healthcare. The fact that the Government is nowproposing decentralisation of the NHS, beginning with proposals to set upnon-profit making public interest companies, is a step in the right direction.

RuthLea, Head of the Policy Unit at the IoD, said:

The Institute ofDirectors suggested as long ago as 2000 that NHS trusts needed to be given fargreater autonomy from Whitehall. We welcome the broad intentions to introducefoundation NHS trusts. Removal of many of the restrictions on NHS trusts shouldfree up the creativity and potential that exists in many parts of theorganisation. By introducing Foundation Trusts gradually it should be possibleto develop good practices and, ultimately, much-improved patient care whichwill be of benefit to us all.

ends 13.3.03 No.154

Notes to Editors

Some IoD referencematerial (see also www.iod.com/policy/papers ):

Healthcare in the UK: the needfor reform, Policy Paper, RuthLea, IoD, London, February 2000 [this proposed the idea of the NHS becoming theregulator and that trusts become self-governing mutuals];

Healthcare in the UK: the needfor reform, revised edition,Policy Paper, Ruth Lea, IoD, June 2000;

Healthcare in the UK: the needfor reform, Economic Comment,Ruth Lea, IoD, October 2000;

Management, Mutuality and Risk:Better Ways to Run the National Health Service, IoD Research Paper, Geraint Day, IoD, October 2000[explored the background to the mutual case for healthcare delivery];

New paths for the provision ofhealthcare, Comment, GeraintDay, IoD, October 2000;

Healthcare Provision Policy StudyGroup, Geraint Day, IoD,October 2001;

The Mutual Health Service, Ruth Lea & Ed Mayo, IoD & New Economics Foundation(NEF), London, November 2002.

The IoD and NEF ran asuccessful joint seminar on foundation trusts and decentralisationpossibilities in November 2002, at which TheMutual Health Service publication was launched.

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