NHS clinical effectiveness taskforce launched
pharmafile | October 25, 2007 | News story | |Â Â Â
New measures to help the NHS use resources and technology more effectively have been unveiled by the government, spearheaded by a team promoting clinical effectiveness.
Another key component are plans to create a number of Academic Health Centres for the Future, with the aim of greater collaboration and sharing of ideas between medical researchers and the NHS.
The development seems to indicate a new determination to promote novel technologies including new medicines to an NHS which is frequently resistant to or very slow in adopting innovation.
The initiatives look certain to encourage more joined-up thinking in the health service, but there is no direct link to faster uptake of medicines on the NHS, something the UK industry continues to identify as a major problem.
Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson has invited Professor Sir John Tooke, a renowned medical researcher and Dean of the Peninsula Medical School in Portsmouth to lead the taskforce.
Its state aim is to give more patients access to the most effective treatments. The government says this will be achieved by better harnessing the expertise of medical staff and relevant bodies and enhancing and creating incentives for more effective and efficient clinical care.
"Access to clinically effective care is the cornerstone of a high quality NHS," said Professor Sir John Tooke.
"I was therefore delighted to be invited to chair the High Level Group on Clinical Effectiveness to explore ways in which more effective and efficient healthcare could be achieved for the benefit of patients. We discovered a plethora of valuable activity but also the need for greater co-ordination and alignment as well as local clinical engagement."
He concluded: "The educational demands are profound and it is crucial that the measures employed to promote clinical effectiveness are as grounded in evidence as treatments themselves."
Academic Health Centres of the Future
The Department of Health is now calling for academic and NHS institutions to pilot the concept of Health Research Academic Health Centres of the Future. These will bring together academia and the NHS across the health communities covered by each Centre. The government hopes the centres can develop innovative models for conducting research and also translating research into practice and improving outcomes for patients.
Funding of up to £50 million will be available for the pilot phase with each Centre getting between £5 -10 million over the funding period.
