Publications

In 2009, the English NHS introduced a world-leading initiative in the pursuit of quality health care: the measurement of patients’ views about their own health became a routine part of the delivery of NHS-funded services. So how has this laudable initiative progressed since its initial success? The answer is, sadly, barely at all.

John Appleby assesses whether the policy of charging for prescriptions in England is helping or harming the NHS.

Much less emphasis should be placed on the use of external pressures, such as targets and inspection, and much greater priority should be given to reforming the NHS from within.

The government’s NHS reforms were meant to devolve power away from Whitehall. In practice the health service remains one of the most centralised in the world. Bottom-up change is urgently needed.

More money is needed – and soon – if the NHS is to avoid drifting into a financial crisis, says Richard Murray.

Rachael Addicott considers how forward thinking GPs can be more engaged in leading the radical service redesign that is required in primary care.

The pressure of a growing and ageing population is made all the more pressing by the financial challenges that the entire health system faces and are keenly felt within general practice.

The King’s Fund proposes a radically new approach to commissioning and funding general practice to tackle the pressure of rising demands when resources are declining.

Over the past few months there has been considerable debate and argument about plans by the NHS to collect and centrally collate details of individual patient records from general practice for the first time. Such fears are perhaps not just hypothetical given past examples of lost patient notes and what appear to be the misuse of sensitive patient information (even for the best of intentions).

The lasting impact of the reforms on mental health services and the people who use them will depend not simply on the legislation itself, but on how it is implemented, says Chris Naylor.

One of the principal aims of England’s Health and Social Care Act 2012 is to distance politicians from the day to day management of the NHS. This aim is being pursued by the creation of the NHS Commissioning Board, which will take responsibility for allocating resources to clinical commissioning groups and commissioning some services directly.

Nicholas Timmins speaks to the Health Service Journal about his new book: Never Again? The story of the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

Implementation of reforms to the hallowed health service is likely to prove messy, says Nick Timmins in the Financial Times.

Will health and wellbeing boards be wordy talking shops or transforming system leaders? Richard Humphries explores this in an article for Local Government Chronicle.

Constructive dialogue between GPs as providers and commissioners, and all other providers of care must be the way forward, says Chris Ham.

Implementation will be as important as legislation in determining the impact of the Health and Social Care Bill, says Chris Ham.

With authorisation starting in October 2012, Chris Naylor asks how ready are the CCGs to take over the mantle of primary care commissioning.

Among the many hotly debated measures set out in the Health and Social Care Act one initiative remains uncontroversial: health and wellbeing boards.

Nicholas Timmins suggests that the evidence to date is that if there is going to be a revolution in the private provision of NHS care, it is going to be a slow one.

The time for grandstanding about the bill has passed. The challenge now is to carve out a path to implementing the reforms that brings about necessary improvements in patient care at a realistic pace.