17 January 2003
The Fabian Society is calling on Health Secretary Alan Milburn to allow the health service a period of stability while it adjusts to the upheavals it has undergone since 1997.
In a pamphlet, published on January 16, the society warns that the NHS is not being given enough time to get to grips with initiatives. The resulting uncertainty is threatening the very service improvements the reforms are meant to achieve, it says.
The pamphlet, Completing the course: health to 2010, says ministers' focus should instead be on consolidating the existing reforms and meeting the targets set out in the government's ten-year plan for health.
The report's co-author, Professor Ray Robinson from the London School of Economics, said the NHS's constant state of flux had been counterproductive. 'There have been far too many big ideas floating around in recent years. These have led to constant "re-disorganisation" of the NHS and performance has suffered.'
PFjan2003
