SHA Response
Please read the below draft response, and leave your views in the comments section at the bottom of the page.
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2 responses to “NHS 10-Year Plan Consultation”
As this document has become more all-embracing, we should include a sentence along the lines of :-
“The NHS needs to directly employ more primary care staff to include GPs. Fewer new doctors want to work as small business people in the traditional general practice GPs should be offered a new national salaried contract to fill the inequalities and gaps that were graphically highlighted by the Darzi Review. This new contract should be clinically led and managed as well as being based on high professional standards and values.”
I found the draft response very good and informative. Many thanks for those who helped write it. I have just three additions to make which I hope you will find acceptable.
1. In the first paragraph, insert after ‘accountable to national and local elected bodies’
‘Such accountabilities were removed by the 2012 Act; they should be restored’
to read:
The Socialist Health Association (SHA) calls for the NHS to be reinstated as a publicly provided service, operating within the context of a functioning welfare state, and which is planned according to the needs of the whole population and accountable to national and local elected bodies. Such accountabilities were removed by the 2012 Act; they should be restored. We support strong links to local government which must be funded to provide public health and social care as part of a National Care Service.
2. The last paragraph, insert after ‘Important early gains can be achieved by unblocking patient pathways’
‘end the use of NHS premises by private health companies’
And, insert after ‘and investing in much needed equipment and staff training’
‘commandeer private hospitals and clinics to integrate them into the NHS to serve NHS patients in the same way as the WW2 government commandeered land and factories to integrate them within the national war effort’
to read:
The NHS, of course, was a product of its time, a hierarchical society at the height of empire with embedded prejudices towards women, ethnic minorities, gay people not to mention deeply ingrained class prejudice and frequently appalling attitudes towards those with mental illness. These issues must be addressed centrally and rapidly in the process of reinstating the service, as must the last minute compromises Bevan was forced into in order to get the NHS launched. This sounds as if it is a long project. It is. But there are many short term wins and many structural changes have a minimal impact on management of front line staff and services in the short term. Important early gains can be achieved by unblocking patient pathways, end the use of NHS premises by private health companies, identifying key areas of capital expenditure, fixing crumbling NHS buildings, accelerating training and most importantly support for young professionals, rebuilding NHS teams though a ‘huge wave of insourcing’ and investing in much needed equipment and staff training, commandeer private hospitals and clinics to integrate them into the NHS to serve NHS patients in the same way as the WW2 government commandeered land and factories to integrate them within the national war effort. Social care must be tackled in its own right and because of its impact on the NHS. Again rapid progress can be made on the road to establishing a National Care Service.