Health Bill continues fast pace of NHS reform

pharmafile | January 20, 2011 | News story | Sales and Marketing GP consortia, NHS, NHS Commissioning Board, NHS reforms, NICE, QALY 

The government has outlined its draft Health and Social Care Bill, making some minor concessions to critics but promising no let up in the relentless pace of its NHS reform programme in England.

Reading the Bill health secretary Andrew Lansley said there will be some changes that “impact on pace” and offer a “greater sense of piloting”, but that the speed of the reforms were necessary to avoid “any opportunity to improve outcomes [being] lost”.

The Bill will not be debated in the House of Commons until its second reading later this year, but its reading came on the same day as Prime Minister’s Questions where leader of the Labour Opposition Ed Miliband used four of his six allocated questions to challenge the Prime Minister on the pace and consequences of the reform.

During these David Cameron refused to be drawn into a protracted debate, but re-stated his belief that he was putting the NHS “back into the hands of patients and GPs” while cutting “needless bureaucrats” and NHS management.

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The planned reforms will see the abolition of Primary Care Trusts and Strategic Health Authorities, replacing them with regional GP consortia that will control around 80% of the £104 billion NHS budget by 2013.

The government’s proposals have received a large volume of complaints in the run up to the new Bill, with dissent coming from the BMA, the Royal College of GPs, the NHS Confederation and even the Conservative-led Health Select Committee.

Doctors’ association the BMA was a leading voice of opposition to the reforms, saying they were a “massive gamble” which would “damage local services”.

Shadow health secretary John Healey added to the dissent, saying the Health and Social Care Bill was “three times bigger” than the legislation that set up the NHS in 1948.

“It’s a huge upheaval which will put unnecessary extra pressure on the NHS and could open up all parts of the NHS to competition from private health companies.” 

He added that the health secretary had “not listened to the warnings from health experts, professional bodies or patient groups”, and is set to “force through” the Bill.

The Health and Social Care Bill

The Bill’s reading in Parliament provide a number of new details about the NHS Commissioning Board that will take over the day-to-day running of the health service by April 2012.

The Board, to be headed up by current NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson, will have the ability to remove or reduce the functions GP consortia are allowed to be carried out if they underperform.

Consortia will also have the power to pool budgets for some or even all of their tasks with other consortia or through the Board.

In addition, the Bill allows for private healthcare firms to step in if some consortia are unable – or unwilling – to provide commissioning services, meaning pharma will have even more diverse healthcare providers to build relationships with.

In line with the government’s ongoing value-based pricing consultation, NICE will have to consider social care costs and the ‘desirability of promoting innovation’ when assessing a drug’s cost-effectiveness.

This element has not historically been part of NICE’s QALY formula but was recently used in its 2010 decision on expanding the use of Alzheimer’s drugs on the NHS.

Ben Adams

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