Reforms are a ‘risky business’ for the NHS
pharmafile | December 16, 2010 | News story | | Civitas, GP commissioning, NHS, NHS reforms, PCTs
The government is taking a ‘big risk’ with NHS reforms that will hand GPs responsibility for commissioning services, according to a think tank.
The Institute for the Study of Civil Society (Civitas) says questions remain around health secretary Andrew Lansley’s strategy, outlined in his recent White Paper.
The organisation’s director James Gubb said: “It is a gamble to expect new providers to enter a politically uncertain market, without the active encouragement of commissioners prepared to develop a supply base.”
The biggest risk is the government’s move to abolish all PCTs and transfer commissioning responsibility to new ‘GP consortia’ by 2013, Civitas said.
The think tank concludes this will hinder rather than help the NHS, and that there is likely to be a negative effect on the NHS’s ability to improve productivity during the transition.
The institute suggests the wholesale reoganisation of commissioning could derail the potentially positive impact of other aspects of the White Paper and offers a range of alternate strategies.
These include freeing PCTs from interference by Strategic Health Authorities and giving GPs increased statutory influence over PCTs.
Other suggested measures include a 90-day notice period where PCTs, GPs or other organisations have the option to take over a commissioning body that is failing; and a proposal that could see commissioning organisations free to merge and de-merge as mutuals or co-operatives.
Such an approach, Civitas argues, would allow the NHS to build upon the best PCT commissioning while permitting entrepreneurs to take over in areas where it is failing, or where GPs want to step in.
MPs recently issued a stark warning on the impact of government spending plans on the England’s health services, saying they will test the NHS and social services to the limit.
Brett Wells
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