07 April 2006
The government must slow down the implementation of some NHS reforms to give the service a chance to regain financial balance, the NHS Confederation said this week.
As the new financial year opened with further job losses and a tight pay round, the managers' organisation urged ministers to review their reform programme.
Gill Morgan, the confederation's chief executive, said: 'We need an urgent review of the key changes to make sure we push forward the things that are needed to make a rapid difference, while being more measured on initiatives that have a longer-term payback.'
Ministers could slow down the implementation of GP practice-based commissioning and moves to cut transitional funding aimed at lessening the impact of payment by results.
However, she insisted the NHS had to keep up the pace on PBR and the 18-week waiting time target, due to be achieved by the end of 2008.
Ministers should also switch to three-year pay deals and fix the payment by results tariff for more than one year at a time.
The service continues to show financial problems – Surrey and Sussex Healthcare Trust expects to lose 400 jobs as it aims to turn around a £2m monthly overspend.
A centre-Right group, Doctors for Reform, said the current tax-funded model was unsustainable. All three major political parties are committed to the system.
British Medical Association chair Jim Johnson rejected Doctors for Reform's arguments but claimed time was running out for an NHS that was free at the point of delivery. Johnson, who had been angered by the government's decision to stage consultants' pay awards, told a BMA conference that the NHS was in a mess, despite recent spending increases.
And, referring to the belief that annual NHS spending increases will fall back to more traditional levels of between 2% and 3% after 2008, he added: 'We believe in an NHS free at the point of use. If we want that to continue we've probably got two years to get that right.'
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