The new health secretary has announced a
review of the NHS that could affect the direction and funding
of the £12.4bn
National Programme for IT at a time of cost
pressures.
Alan Johnson today announced an independent review of the NHS,
which will help inform the Treasury when it sets the funding for
the health service as part of the
2007 Comprehensive Spending Review.
The review will be led by practicing surgeon Sir Ara Darzi, and
it will not be "controlled from above", said Johnson. He added that
one aim of the review was to ensure the NHS is "clinically led,
patient-centered and locally accountable". It will draw on the
views of NHS staff, patients and the public.
It will look among other things at ensuring that "clinical
decision-making is at the heart of the future of the NHS and the
pattern of service delivery". Johnson also emphasised that money
spent on the health service needed to be invested wisely.
This review could be an opportunity for the government to
revisit the
£12.4bn National Programme for IT [NPfIT].
Many in the NHS want NHS trusts to have more discretion over
what they buy, provided it meets national standards. If this
happens as a result of the review, it is unclear how the
programme’s main suppliers, the so-called
Local Service Providers, would make enough money from their
NPfIT contracts to justify the investments they have made in
national systems.
Johnson told the House of Commons that the review will also
establish a "vision for the next decade of the health service,
which is based less on central direction and more on patient
control, choice and local accountability."
He said: "Professor Darzi will complete an initial assessment in
three months’ time to inform the Comprehensive Spending Review and
produce his full report in the New Year.
"This review will not succeed if it is controlled from above.
The best of the NHS sits not at the top of the organisation but in
the millions of complex, diverse relationships, which exist across
the country between dedicated devoted professionals and their
patients.
"The success of the review will depend on gaining access to
these relationships and stimulating a range of lively, local,
provocative debates. The scale of our discussions with staff,
patients and the public will be unprecedented."
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