By Richard Johnstone | 18 June 2014
A former health advisor to Tony Blair has warned that the NHS faces a dual crisis of affordability and quality, and must remove barriers to structural reform to improve provision over the next decade.
In a report for think-tank Reform, Paul Corrigan said changes were needed to as much as three-quarters of NHS hospitals and GP practices to better integrate provision and allow for greater use of private and independent providers.
In a report co-authored with Mike Parish, chief executive of the independent health company Care UK, Corrigan said improvements such as integrated commissioning were being blocked by protectionism, political conservatism and ‘false loyalty’ to traditional models.
‘In the next decade independent companies and third sector organisations must be allowed and encouraged to work with new NHS organisations to deliver the majority of health services for NHS patients,’ he said.
‘Simply finding more money for the health service is not the answer. Instead the NHS needs to learn from those sectors of the economy that have cut costs and improved quality.’
Among the recommendations in the report was a call for the NHS to support the development of new business models both within and from outside the health service.
The current regime, where primary care is largely provided through small GP practices and patients with long-term conditions often received care in acute hospitals, was both ‘out of step with the new healthcare needs and are also bankrupting the service’.
The health service must respond to these challenges, today’s Going for change: allowing new models of healthcare to be provided for NHS patients report stated.
New models of integrated care, such as the contract for musculo-skeletal services in Bedfordshire recently won by Circle in partnership with public and third sector organisations, could replace 50% of NHS services if barriers were removed. In addition, a new model of internet-based care, which could emerge around 2018, could have replaced 20% of services.
