Alliance warns of ‘dumbing down’ of NHS reforms
pharmafile | May 9, 2011 | News story | | NHS reforms
The leader of the NHS Alliance has warned the current ‘pause’ in the NHS reforms could result changes which ‘dumb down’ or obstruct GP commissioning.
Dr Michael Dixon is chairman of the NHS Alliance, which represents GPs, PCTs and other primary care professionals. Addressing a recent health service conference in Harrogate, Dr Dixon said the reforms were in danger of being over altered for the worse.
“GP Commissioning must not be dumbed down or paralysed with red tape,” he said.
Prime Minister David Cameron, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Health Secretary Andrew Lansley announced the ‘pause’ in the progress of the reforms on 4 April, and since then momentum has grown for substantial change to the radical reform plans.
The most frequently heard call is for the reforms to be steered towards more ‘integrated care’ where primary care and secondary care doctors and nurses (and other health professions) share decision-making, rather than the current plans for ‘GP-led’ commissioning.
Dr Dixon warned that changing the name away from ‘GP-led commissioning’ would be a mistake.
“If we change the name, then this is the wrong signal for GPs and GP practices. It will also be the wrong signal for GP commissioning pathfinder leaders, who need at the same time to enthuse their local practices and show the rest of the world that GP commissioning can answer many of the problems facing the NHS over the next few years.
In an empassioned argument, Dr Dixon says opponents have “lined up an impressive list of ‘men of straw’ arguments against it.”
He says implications that GP commissioners would commission clinical services without the advice of specialist colleagues or other clinicians in primary care, or ignore views of local people or patients were “completely daft arguments.”
The NHS Alliance argues that GPs are best placed to decide how to allocate resources “Current health services, especially in the UK with its disproportionally high rate of hospital admissions, are often orientated towards acute care and ‘the old paradigm’ of care. But the main issue today is not acute care, but long-term care. This constitutes eight out of 10 GP consultations with most people over 65 having two or more long-term conditions.
“GP commissioning has strong foundations over the last 20 years. It is not some new-fangled Government or Department of Health idea, Dixon concluded. “It has been led by the frontline and it will be a terrible disaster for the NHS and general practice if it were to falter now.”
Despite Dr Dixon’s protestations, it looks likely that some significant changes will be made to the legislation. Heavy defeats in the local elections to the Liberal Democrats have also changed the mood in their coalition with the Conservatives, with the party expected to insist on major concessions in the health plans.
Andrew McConaghie
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