Bunker down, the White Paper’s here
It’s all very exciting to be reporting for Healthcare Republic
when reforms of this scale are announced.
The country’s health correspondents gather in Whitehall and are led
downstairs into the DoH’s windowless media suite/bunker. There is an atmosphere not dissimilar to the opening moments
of a school exam as we get 25 minutes to read the never-before-seen document before the Secretary of State arrives.
Andrew Lansley seemed in good spirits despite
continued doubts over the risks that GP commissioners will overspend.
NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson however, could not be said to be in high spirits. Several hacks noted his pained expression throughout the press briefing, dour even by his standards. When you think of the
scale of the task he has ahead of him, can you blame him?
Imagine the scene in trust offices across England as news starts
to break that PCTs and SHAs are to be abolished in two years. How will PCTs motivate
their staff to organise and implement these reforms quickly – ultimately speeding
up their own demise?
Once the ‘lock-in’ at the DoH ends and I’m back in the office, I’ve never seen so much – and such mixed – reaction to a government
health document. If this policy is to get off the ground, negotiations with the GPC must be
constructive to ensure GPs are willing to muck in to make this difficult new role a success.
We’ll be keeping you up to date with how those talks with the GPC progress. In the longer term, it will be interesting to see how GPs’ commissioning
performance affects their reputation in the public’s eyes when funding
really starts to get tight, and the extent to which private firms get involved
in organising NHS care.
That’s all from me.
Ahem. Shouldn’t you be commissioning?
