Health Systems: Research & Counselling

£1.7 billion set aside for NHS reform

The English NHS has saved almost £1.7 billion this year for new policy changes, which is over seven times the amount it intends to save on its own management strategies.

Sir David Nicholson, the boss for the NHS said that the money would help to ’kick-start'this new transformation. The new funding will initiate the start of a gradual process where GPs and people working locum doctor jobs will gain greater control over budgets and the bureaucracy of NHS management will be significantly reduced.

The government proclaims that substantial savings will be achieved in future years, however concerns by unions were raised about the possibility that the spending may spiral out of control. All primary care trusts in England’s health authorities will be axed, which will affect the jobs of over 60,000 managers in the country. The £105 billion health budget is likely to be placed under the responsibility of several hundred GP consortiums, which could be set up by the end of the year and are likely to be in ’full swing'by the spring of 2013.

Meanwhile, further funds will be set aside over the coming years and ministers have been challenged with regards to the scale of these plans, which one British Medical Journal expert has estimated could be in the order of £2 billion to £3 billion pounds. Mr Cameron has been repeatedly challenged by acting Labour leader Harriet Harman over suggestions that the two week referral guarantee for cancer patients could be scrapped. The government’s Department of Health also admitted that it could not recognise the £1.7 billion figure.

Manchester Business School Professor Kieran Walshe was unconvinced that these new policy changes would provide a better standard of care for patients, nor was he convinced that this would facilitate the NHS to achieve its performance targets. Health expert James Gubb also warned that the NHS was in danger of becoming riddled with government restructuring programmes, which could lead to a fall in the quality of care for patients.