News

• Filter by category:
• All
• NHS News
• Company News

• Filter by nation:
• All
• England
• Wales
• Scotland
• Northern Ireland

Health Bill could be stopping the NHS making necessary efficiency savings

24/01/12

The changes which are already being made to the NHS with Andrew Lansley’s Health Bill could actually be stopping its ability to make savings.

The NHS needs to save £20 billion by 2015 through improving its productivity – the equivalent of 4% a year.

The Health Select Committee say that the Health Bill is a “distraction” and a “complication” masking the real issues of saving money, and the amount of savings that have to be made to fund an increasingly aging and overweight population. However, Lansley says that the changes are “essential” to improve the NHS and the services it provides.

Furore about the Health Bill had died down last year, with a pause halting some opposition. By the end of 2011, the bill was well on its way through parliament, but since the beginning of 2012 the momentum of support against the reforms has surfaced again and there are now large groups of people against the changes.

Only last week unions representing nurses and midwives joined forces with the British Medical Association, who believe the bill should be scrapped. Later this week all the royal colleges and unions are meeting to talk about what the next stage in opposing the Health Bill involves.

BMA’s chairman of council, Dr Hamish Meldrum believes that the plans will ultimately prove harmful to patients.

‘The health select committee say it’s distracting – we would say it’s completely unnecessary and somewhat dangerous.

‘As the health select committee say, it’s taking everybody’s mind off the real issures, which is trying to run an efficient health service, trying to make changes to the health service for the benefit of patients, and, at the same time, trying to identify savings.’

The Health Select Committee was not specifically discussing the reforms, but the NHS as a whole and how it is producing the efficiency savings when this conclusion was reached.

The HSC say that the short term cuts will not sustainable in producing the necessary 4% savings a year, and more emphasis needs to be put on integrating with social care to stop more people needing costly hospital care – but in some cases the opposite is happening with councils restricting access to services.

Chief economist of the King’s Fund, John Appleby agrees with the findings:

‘The report should serve as a wake-up call for ministers and the NHS about the magnitude of the task ahead.’

Mike Farrar, from the NHS Confederation agrees:

‘The NHS faces a once-in-a-generation financial challenge that is still to be explained properly to the public’

Coalition MPs aren’t going down without a fight though, with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg saying that the NHS reforms will go ahead despite any criticisms from MPs and health professionals.

Andrew Lansley says that the NHS modernisation plans ‘are essential if we are to pull the NHS on a sustainable footing for the future.’

‘There’s been support for the principles of what we’re doing, including from many of the leading professional organisations.

‘The legislation’s not completed its passage, the Lords are making many significant and constructive suggestions, and we will take those on board, but the principles of the bill are widely supported.’