Bliar's health spin doctor Paul Corrigan returns to No 10
Tony Blair has recalled Paul Corrigan, one of the architects of the government's supplier market in healthcare, to be his health adviser in Downing Street. The move is a sign that the prime minister is deeply worried that no one in the Department of Health appears to be able to keep a full grasp on the complexity of the government's health reforms.
These include: money following the patient, with hospitals paid only for the work they do; foundation hospitals becoming free-standing organisations outside the direct control of the health department; the arrival of competing private providers; patients being given a choice over where they are treated; and moves to give family doctors shadow budgets with which to buy care.
The changes, combined with factors such as technological change and further cuts in junior doctors' hours, threaten the viability of some hospitals.
A revamp of the way the health care market is regulated is also needed to cope with the changes.
Tony's Cronies
Mr Corrigan is the husband of Hilary Armstrong, the government's chief whip- who was castigated as a "shouting child" by teh Conservative leader David Cameron in PMQs yesterday. Corrigan was a special adviser in the health department for four years up to this year's general election and played a key role in devising the changes. He replaces Ian Dodge, a civil servant who will return to the health department.
A Whitehall insider said: "Paul spent four years trying to get his head round this so he is probably four years ahead of everyone else in trying to understand its consequences and work out what needs to be done."
The insider added that given the unrest on Labour's backbenches over the health reforms, there was also a need for "a political take" on the whole reform process as well as a technical one: something that it was difficult for Mr Dodge, as a civil servant, to provide.
Since leaving the department, Mr Corrigan has worked as a consultant and published work warning that the government needs "a failure regime", not just for hospitals but for primary care. Some family doctors may fail to attract sufficient patients in an era of patient choice, he has warned.
He also argued that family doctor practices are too small and need to be organised into bigger units so they can borrow money to provide high-quality diagnostics and much more care outside hospitals.
He argues that "size matters" in primary care if millions of episodes of care are to be successfully moved out of hospital. If the NHS fails to do that, he has said, it will be in trouble.
His appointment comes as some people are blaming the health service's financial problems on the early stages of reform. For the first time this year, trusts are being paid for non- urgent surgery by numbers of patients, not a block contract.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/33ca143c-6534-11da-8cff-0000779e2340.html
These include: money following the patient, with hospitals paid only for the work they do; foundation hospitals becoming free-standing organisations outside the direct control of the health department; the arrival of competing private providers; patients being given a choice over where they are treated; and moves to give family doctors shadow budgets with which to buy care.
The changes, combined with factors such as technological change and further cuts in junior doctors' hours, threaten the viability of some hospitals.
A revamp of the way the health care market is regulated is also needed to cope with the changes.
Tony's Cronies
Mr Corrigan is the husband of Hilary Armstrong, the government's chief whip- who was castigated as a "shouting child" by teh Conservative leader David Cameron in PMQs yesterday. Corrigan was a special adviser in the health department for four years up to this year's general election and played a key role in devising the changes. He replaces Ian Dodge, a civil servant who will return to the health department.
A Whitehall insider said: "Paul spent four years trying to get his head round this so he is probably four years ahead of everyone else in trying to understand its consequences and work out what needs to be done."
The insider added that given the unrest on Labour's backbenches over the health reforms, there was also a need for "a political take" on the whole reform process as well as a technical one: something that it was difficult for Mr Dodge, as a civil servant, to provide.
Since leaving the department, Mr Corrigan has worked as a consultant and published work warning that the government needs "a failure regime", not just for hospitals but for primary care. Some family doctors may fail to attract sufficient patients in an era of patient choice, he has warned.
He also argued that family doctor practices are too small and need to be organised into bigger units so they can borrow money to provide high-quality diagnostics and much more care outside hospitals.
He argues that "size matters" in primary care if millions of episodes of care are to be successfully moved out of hospital. If the NHS fails to do that, he has said, it will be in trouble.
His appointment comes as some people are blaming the health service's financial problems on the early stages of reform. For the first time this year, trusts are being paid for non- urgent surgery by numbers of patients, not a block contract.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/33ca143c-6534-11da-8cff-0000779e2340.html
posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic at
8:55 AM
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