Bliar pushes health reforms amid cash crisis
The Labour government on Wednesday announced changes to the structure of the NHS as Tony Blair and Patricia Hewitt brought together health chiefs to discuss the cash crisis affecting the nation’s hospitals.
The number of strategic health authorities in England is to be cut from 28 to 10, which the government argues will lead to improved services for patients, while savings on back office functions would mean better value for money for the taxpayer, it said.
The Downing Street meeting with chief executives of NHS trusts comes as the health service prepares to declare a record overspend and shed thousands of jobs.
Ms Hewitt, the health secretary, told the BBC on Wednesday: “What we are doing this morning is bringing together a number of hospitals which have had financial problems. Some of them have already put in place very successful recovery programmes and have come through, making the care they are giving patients better.
“The great majority of hospitals and other parts of the NHS are not only paying their staff far more, not only hitting all their targets and treating more patients than ever before, (but) they’re doing it within these very substantially increased budgets we’ve given them. That’s what we expect every part of the NHS to do.”
Separately on Wednesday, a report from the Reform think tank blamed the current difficulties on the expansion of services and argued the government should concentrate on building a smaller and more efficient health service.
Andrew Haldenby, the director of Reform, said: “A bigger NHS workforce is one of the major reasons for the service’s financial difficulties. A smaller number of more effective staff will help the service return to financial reality as well as improving care for patients.”
The number of jobs and posts lost in the NHS in England has already cleared 6,000 this year, with more to come. West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust said on Wednesday it would cut 500 jobs in the next 18 months while last week York Hospital said 200 vacancies would not be filled as it tries to save £7m in the coming financial year.
The move follows warnings from several key health service figures.
The former head of the Department of Health’s strategy unit warned last week that the NHS was entering a period of “creative destruction” with hospitals needing to close and services to be reconfigured while Professor Aidan Halligan, former deputy chief medical officer, said any suggestion of real reform in the NHS has been “a deceit”.
The government on Wednesday also announced the biggest hospital PFI project outside London with a £1bn redevelopment of NHS hospitals in Birmingham and St Helens.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/2936095a-ca00-11da-852f-0000779e2340.html
The number of strategic health authorities in England is to be cut from 28 to 10, which the government argues will lead to improved services for patients, while savings on back office functions would mean better value for money for the taxpayer, it said.
The Downing Street meeting with chief executives of NHS trusts comes as the health service prepares to declare a record overspend and shed thousands of jobs.
Ms Hewitt, the health secretary, told the BBC on Wednesday: “What we are doing this morning is bringing together a number of hospitals which have had financial problems. Some of them have already put in place very successful recovery programmes and have come through, making the care they are giving patients better.
“The great majority of hospitals and other parts of the NHS are not only paying their staff far more, not only hitting all their targets and treating more patients than ever before, (but) they’re doing it within these very substantially increased budgets we’ve given them. That’s what we expect every part of the NHS to do.”
Separately on Wednesday, a report from the Reform think tank blamed the current difficulties on the expansion of services and argued the government should concentrate on building a smaller and more efficient health service.
Andrew Haldenby, the director of Reform, said: “A bigger NHS workforce is one of the major reasons for the service’s financial difficulties. A smaller number of more effective staff will help the service return to financial reality as well as improving care for patients.”
The number of jobs and posts lost in the NHS in England has already cleared 6,000 this year, with more to come. West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust said on Wednesday it would cut 500 jobs in the next 18 months while last week York Hospital said 200 vacancies would not be filled as it tries to save £7m in the coming financial year.
The move follows warnings from several key health service figures.
The former head of the Department of Health’s strategy unit warned last week that the NHS was entering a period of “creative destruction” with hospitals needing to close and services to be reconfigured while Professor Aidan Halligan, former deputy chief medical officer, said any suggestion of real reform in the NHS has been “a deceit”.
The government on Wednesday also announced the biggest hospital PFI project outside London with a £1bn redevelopment of NHS hospitals in Birmingham and St Helens.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/2936095a-ca00-11da-852f-0000779e2340.html
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