MPs set to probe health service finances as ‘crisis’ continues
pharmafile | April 26, 2006 | News story | |
MPs look set to launch an inquiry into the continuing problems in the NHS, as job cuts and fears of financial crisis threaten to destabilise the health service.
Concern about the problems has gathered pace since late 2005, when it became apparent many trusts would end the financial year in debt, despite record funding for the NHS. More than 7,000 job cuts have been announced across the health service in the past few weeks, as some trusts have struggled to balance their books.
Health service observers say the NHS in England will end the last financial year with a deficit in excess of 600 million pounds.
While the health service in the rest of the UK faces financial strictures, the problems are the worst in England, where the government's critics say misjudged and excessive reforms are partly to blame.
If the Health Select Committee launches an inquiry it will undoubtedly attempt to get to the root of the problem by calling on senior politicians, civil servants and NHS leaders to provide evidence relating to the crisis.
The committee chairman is Labour MP Keith Barron, who recently told Parliament that trust budget deficits were 'clearly threatening to destabilise' the health service. Mr Barron was appointed to his post after the general election, along with colleagues from across the political divide.
The MPs have already probed one major government reform, the restructuring and merging of PCT's and Strategic Health Authorities which is about to get under way (see story below).
The committee delivered a damning verdict on this reform, concluding that it has been rushed through and has added to an already massive burden of change management on NHS managers and clinicians.
Liberal Democrat committee member Paul Burstow said the committee had not yet signed off the terms of reference for a new inquiry, but indicated one was highly likely.
"Members of all parties on the committee are concerned that the government keep telling us this is a localised problem, not a national problem," he told the BBC.
"We want to find out whether that is really true, or whether the scale of the problem is in fact greater, and is one that needs action to deal with it across the country."
Burstow said the NHS appeared to be in 'perpetual revolution' and blighted by instability.
Prime Minister Tony Blair used a speech to healthcare professionals to defend his government's record on the NHS, and told his audience it was not the time to back away from further reform but to 'hold our nerve.'
Hitting out at critics, he rejected claims the service is in crisis, and said the 'challenges' facing the NHS had been blown out of proportion.
Accusing some of turning every challenge into a crisis and every problem into a catastrophe, Blair said: "The financial deficits in a minority of hospitals are a serious challenge. Given that their cumulative impact is less than 1% of annual turnover, to describe them as 'a crisis', however, is somewhat over the top."
In an erudite review of healthcare systems in other developed nations, Mr Blair pointed out that many countries were facing overspends in the their healthcare system. This includes France – often cited as having the best healthcare system in the world – where the system had a 4% overspend last year, and a 16% accumulated deficit.
He concluded: "Of course there is plenty we can learn from other systems. But, the real point is this: despite the national differences over methods of paying for healthcare, around the world a common direction is emerging in methods of delivering it. All developed countries are trying to keep pace with rising expectations and demands, with the cost pressures posed by ageing populations and technological advance.
"Almost all countries are attempting to do so by creating more flexible health systems delivering better care to patients within reasonable fiscal constraints, by strengthening choice, bringing in new providers, and strengthening good financial management."
In the UK, he said four interlocking reforms – practice-based commissioning, Payment by Results, patient choice and competition from the private sector – would deliver a modern, self-regulating NHS.
The NHS Confederation said it welcomed the Prime Minister's clarification about the reform agenda, but warned the health service managers it represents should be allowed to focus on the four reforms 'without the distraction of new policy.'
