NHS plans given mixed reviews by the experts

2:30pm Thursday 3rd July 2008

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A KEY health report on the future of the NHS over the next decade has provoked mixed reactions in Worcestershire.

The 12-month review, Our NHS, Our Future, was carried out by surgeon and health minister Lord Darzi and sets nationwide health priorities for the next 10 years. The review, published on Monday, involved consultations with 60,000 patients and staff and called for “more clout” for patients and more emphasis on quality.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson also told the House of Commons there should be an “unwavering, unrelenting focus on quality” days before the NHS celebrates its 60th birthday tomorrow.

Clinical information about the quality of service is set to be displayed on “dashboards” in hospitals, GP surgeries and on the web.

Lord Darzi also wants the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to approve the use of certain drugs much faster so patients can get access to them.

Darzi has already proposed 150 new health centres open 8am to 8pm, one of which is scheduled to open in Worcester between December this year and March of next.

John Rostill, chief executive of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which manages Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester, welcomed the report.

Mr Rostill said the report was the biggest since the NHS Plan eight years ago which he said had a strong emphasis on figures and targets.

Mr Rostill said: “We’re moving onto a service that concentrates on quality and is patient-focussed and is about delivering choice for patients and meeting their expectations.”

But Simon Parkinson, secretary of Worcestershire medical committee, which represents the interests of 450 GPs in the county, described the report as “a bit woolly”.

Dr Parkinson remains concerned about the new generation of health centres, some of which may be run by private companies.

Some GPs have said the health centres will open the door to privatisation and damage the “cradle to grave” tradition of general practice.

Dr Parkinson said: “A lot of primary care trusts may decide that’s the road they want to go down.

“Darzi’s report does not reassure me about the commercialisation of health care. There isn’t what I would call a big idea in the report.

“But that’s good because the NHS does not need radical reorganisation.

“We’re sick of that. The need to look at quality of service, as detailed in the report, is absolutely right.”