As the professional body that exists to raise the quality of care for seriously ill patients in hospitals, the Royal College of Physicians and its fellows and members must be embedded in national and local structures to provide advice on setting standards, education and training and other areas, such as clinical audits and guidelines. We felt we could best represent the views of our members by attending the meeting and briefing the Prime Minister on the RCP’s concerns.
I raised with the PM our concerns that competition could damage, and is already damaging, integrated care pathways, and that the government should commit to a high quality threshold for any qualified provider (AQP) for clinical services. In addition, I raised our view that the raising of the private income cap must not displace NHS provision. For example, NHS beds must not be closed to open private beds, and so any private provision in NHS hospitals must be additive.
I also discussed the considerable amount of anxiety among the medical profession regarding their ability to provide high quality medical care to patients due to the effects of the New Deal and the European Working Time Directive (EWTD), and the increasing number of acute admissions and the ability of current services to respond to an ageing population.
The RCP has from the outset been neither for nor against the Bill. This should not be taken to mean that the RCP is sitting on the fence or is undecided. From the start we have lobbied vigorously, with some success, on the issues where we feel change was necessary, and shall continue to work with all politicians and stakeholders to ensure the legislation is the best it can possibly be to improve healthcare for patients.
On Monday 27 February the RCP is holding an Extraordinary General Meeting for fellows of the RCP to debate the Health and Social Care Bill and vote on a motion to decide if the RCP should survey its membership on the reforms.
Tags: Health Bill
Well, that’s alright then. We can all relax.
Such a principled stand. You have to admire the brass-plated cojones of those clever physicians, prepared to tell the PM not to open too many private beds now. Jesus wept!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/9093565/Only-the-inefficient-need-fear-NHS-competition.html
Welcome to the new world
Tom - you’ve been around long enough to know that for every piece of research revealing that A is true, there will be another showing that it is not. There is plenty of evidence for the adverse effects of competition, and I’m in no position to judge between them (although the American health care system gives us something to think about).
But I do know that the statement that ‘It is only the inefficient and unproductive who have anything to fear from greater competition’ is complete BS. As does any radiologist who saw the way in which the ‘lower cost’ of private MR scans was made the justification for the presence of mobile scanners in hospital car parks while the in-house machine lay idle because there was no money to pay out of hours staff costs.
I won’t be taking advice on this from The Telegraph, any more than I will listen to the shrill condemnation of the Bill by The Mirror. And Ben Goldacre’s listing of the extra-parliamentary affiliations of many of the leading political figures in this debate tells us a lot about their enthusiasm for private sector involvement.
Frankly, it’s a complete mess. I actually have no problem with fair competition on a level playing field, but then of course, you have to ask yourself how you can have real competition in a field where demand is infinite, and supply is cash-limited. I do know that the best analysis of this bill by experts in parliamentary law is that it is a complete dog’s breakfast that no-one really understands, and that it’s only effect is likely to be a huge increase in costs at a time when we are supposed to be saving money. And at a time when the NHS has been demonstrated to be a rapidly improving delivery system, which is more cost-effective than most of its counterparts elsewhere in the developed world.
Can’t believe I typed ‘it’s’!