NHS Future Forum calls for clarity on health reforms

10 Jan 12
More clarity is needed on how competition and patient choice in the health service can be increased, according to the NHS Future Forum.
By Richard Johnstone | 10 January 2012

More clarity is needed on how competition and patient choice in the health service can be increased, according to the NHS Future Forum.

The forum carried out the major consultation into the government’s health reforms last June and has since been engaged in follow-up work.

Its second report, published today, looks at how the reforms coud lead to more integrated care, highlighting the need to ‘clarify the rules on choice, competition and integration’.

Specifically, regulator Monitor and the NHS Commissioning Board should produce guidelines ‘as soon as possible’ on how to ensure the principles and rules for co-operation and competition comply with UK and European competition law.

The two bodies should also outline their methodology for establishing and policing the prices for care, which will be used as a basis for competition between providers.

The NHS Future Forum also calls for health funding to follow the patient, which would help support and encourage integration of care.

In a letter to Lansley, forum chair Professor Steve Field said that the forum had been contacted by clinicians involved in establishing clinical commissioning groups across England, who saw opportunities to develop more integrated systems.

However, he added: ‘We also heard concerns about how clinicallyled commissioning might place their responsibility to the individual patient at odds with their responsibility to their wider population of patients. This potential conflict has always existed and as the financial situation becomes more difficult, it is vital that the NHS stays valuesbased in addressing it.’

The Department of Health said that it accepted all the report’s recommendations, including the need for the whole health system to be modelled around patients.

It said that for the first time, patients’ experience of integrated care would be measured as part of the NHS outcomes framework.

The department also said that it would consult on a new responsibility for all health care professionals to promote healthy living through their day-to-day contact with patients, another of the report’s recommendations.

Lansley said: ‘The NHS Future Forum has again provided invaluable feedback and advice on what the NHS needs to do to improve results and put the NHS truly on the side of patients. We are taking forward modernisation within the NHS in partnership with professional leaders from the service. I'm pleased to accept all their recommendations.’

The NHS Confederation said that while the report took a number of steps in the right direction, the government’s reforms would represent a ‘massive leadership challenge’.

Deputy policy director Jo Webber said: ‘A lot needs to be done to turn aspirations into action. If we are to make integration the norm, we need to be realistic that big issues need to be tackled – so that what was previously extraordinary becomes the norm.’

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