Private sector operations to rise from 4% to 11% of total
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《英国医生杂志》
The NHS is to more than double the number of operations it commissions in the private sector to help deliver the government's targets on waiting times, Patricia Hewitt, the new health secretary announced last week.
In her first speech in her new role, Ms Hewitt told delegates at an NHS managers conference that she was determined to carry on the pace of reform started by her predecessor, John Reid, to create a patient led health service.
She announced that ￡3bn ($5.5bn; 4.4bn) will be spent on 1.7 million elective operations over the next five years as the second wave of independent treatment centres starts functioning. The new deals will take the proportion of operations conducted by the private sector from 3.9% at the moment to 11% and will help the government achieve its target of cutting the maximum wait for treatment on the NHS to 18 weeks by 2008.
Ms Hewitt said there would be "faster treatment for orthopaedic surgery; general surgery; ear, nose, and throat; and urology. All free at the point of care—the founding and eternal principle of the NHS. not `dismantling' the NHS, but giving NHS patients more choice, more innovation, faster, better ways of getting the care they need."
Figures released last week show that waiting times for treatments have fallen in recent months, with targets for heart and cataract operations being met ahead of schedule. The annual report of the NHS chief executive, Nigel Crisp, claims that more than 99% of patients with suspected cancer are being seen by a specialist within two weeks of referral.
However, Ms Hewitt's plans to involve the private sector more in providing NHS treatment has led doctors' leaders and NHS managers to express concern that they could lead to hospital closures.
Mr James Johnson, chairman of the BMA, called for greater clarity on the government's long term plans. "Competition in itself is not a bad thing, but the government must ensure that it does not destabilise NHS services. It would be unfair if specialties such as accident and emergency—which the private sector has been less interested in providing—were undermined because NHS hospitals were unable to survive in a competitive market," he said. See p 1170.(Zosia Kmietowicz)
In her first speech in her new role, Ms Hewitt told delegates at an NHS managers conference that she was determined to carry on the pace of reform started by her predecessor, John Reid, to create a patient led health service.
She announced that ￡3bn ($5.5bn; 4.4bn) will be spent on 1.7 million elective operations over the next five years as the second wave of independent treatment centres starts functioning. The new deals will take the proportion of operations conducted by the private sector from 3.9% at the moment to 11% and will help the government achieve its target of cutting the maximum wait for treatment on the NHS to 18 weeks by 2008.
Ms Hewitt said there would be "faster treatment for orthopaedic surgery; general surgery; ear, nose, and throat; and urology. All free at the point of care—the founding and eternal principle of the NHS. not `dismantling' the NHS, but giving NHS patients more choice, more innovation, faster, better ways of getting the care they need."
Figures released last week show that waiting times for treatments have fallen in recent months, with targets for heart and cataract operations being met ahead of schedule. The annual report of the NHS chief executive, Nigel Crisp, claims that more than 99% of patients with suspected cancer are being seen by a specialist within two weeks of referral.
However, Ms Hewitt's plans to involve the private sector more in providing NHS treatment has led doctors' leaders and NHS managers to express concern that they could lead to hospital closures.
Mr James Johnson, chairman of the BMA, called for greater clarity on the government's long term plans. "Competition in itself is not a bad thing, but the government must ensure that it does not destabilise NHS services. It would be unfair if specialties such as accident and emergency—which the private sector has been less interested in providing—were undermined because NHS hospitals were unable to survive in a competitive market," he said. See p 1170.(Zosia Kmietowicz)