By David Williams
1 October 2009
Health Secretary Andy Burnham has promised to empower NHS staff, making them ‘agents of change’ in an attempt to save up to £20bn over four years.
In his September 30 conference speech, Burnham said: ‘We need a cleverer way of driving reform. We don’t want to impose top-down solutions on staff. They will have the chance to rise to the challenge.’
He said ministers would work with trade unions through the Social Partnership Forum ‘to empower staff, because they are always the best agents of change’.
Burnham boasted that Labour’s record on the NHS represented ‘social progress on an unprecedented scale’, and set early intervention
and prevention as new priorities.
But in a fringe session on September 29, experts questioned whether promoting health and wellbeing could force the NHS into areas that would be inappropriate for the service.
Niall Dickson, chief executive of the King’s Fund, said it was right that the NHS should seek to make people as healthy as possible. However, he criticised Hull Primary Care Trust for spending £500,000 on a yacht with the aim of encouraging young people to become more active.
‘It’s all laudable, but I don’t think that’s the health service’s job. We need to define clearly who is doing what. The question the health service has to ask is “how far is it our business?”’
Julia Manning, a former Conservative parliamentary candidate and current chief executive of 2020 Health, also questioned the role of the NHS.
She said ‘clinical demand’ has been replaced by ‘clinical want’, and that the service risked straying beyond its remit in offering treatment for conditions such as acne and varicose veins.
1 October 2009
Health Secretary Andy Burnham has promised to empower NHS staff, making them ‘agents of change’ in an attempt to save up to £20bn over four years.
In his September 30 conference speech, Burnham said: ‘We need a cleverer way of driving reform. We don’t want to impose top-down solutions on staff. They will have the chance to rise to the challenge.’
He said ministers would work with trade unions through the Social Partnership Forum ‘to empower staff, because they are always the best agents of change’.
Burnham boasted that Labour’s record on the NHS represented ‘social progress on an unprecedented scale’, and set early intervention
and prevention as new priorities.
But in a fringe session on September 29, experts questioned whether promoting health and wellbeing could force the NHS into areas that would be inappropriate for the service.
Niall Dickson, chief executive of the King’s Fund, said it was right that the NHS should seek to make people as healthy as possible. However, he criticised Hull Primary Care Trust for spending £500,000 on a yacht with the aim of encouraging young people to become more active.
‘It’s all laudable, but I don’t think that’s the health service’s job. We need to define clearly who is doing what. The question the health service has to ask is “how far is it our business?”’
Julia Manning, a former Conservative parliamentary candidate and current chief executive of 2020 Health, also questioned the role of the NHS.
She said ‘clinical demand’ has been replaced by ‘clinical want’, and that the service risked straying beyond its remit in offering treatment for conditions such as acne and varicose veins.
