11 April 2008
The NHS internal market in Wales is set to be abolished and local commissioning bodies reduced by two-thirds under far-reaching plans announced by the Welsh Assembly Government.
The proposals, now out for a three-month consultation, would involve Wales departing further from the system used by the NHS in England.
Instead of a market-based system, Welsh local health boards and NHS trusts would receive funding directly from the government or a new NHS Board for Wales.
An activity-based funding system, which would allocate funds to health service organisations, is currently being developed.
Health Minister Edwina Hart said local health boards, which commission care for patients, would be cut from 22 to eight. She added that the new all-Wales board could be a special health authority, a civil service board or an advisory board that would support an NHS chief executive appointed by the Assembly government.
The abolition of the internal market was first proposed in the Labour/Plaid Cymru coalition government's One Wales action plan, published last year. The rationale for scrapping the market is that it is under-used and adds a layer of unnecessary bureaucracy – local health boards rarely commission patient care in hospitals outside their areas so the market is not needed.
'The proposals are driven by a desire to have administrative arrangements for the NHS that are effective in improving services to patients – and supportive of our collaborative approach to improvement across the public services,' Hart said.
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