(British healthcare) NHS faces radical pro-market shakeup

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

The health secretary has unveiled a radical pro-market agenda for the NHS that would permit hospitals to leave public ownership to become "not for profit" companies, hand more consumer powers to patients and allow failing medical centres to go bust.

Andrew Lansley's white paper, which sparked anger from unions and some doctors, could, in the words of one analyst, herald the "denationalisation of healthcare services in England".

The plans could represent the biggest shakeup of the NHS in a generation, with a whole tier of the NHS decapitated: 10 strategic health authorities would be abolished by 2012 and the 150 primary care trusts scrapped by 2013; up to 30,000 managers face being cut or redeployed.

Lansley warned that NHS job losses were "inevitable" but said it was vital to switch cash from bureaucracy into frontline services. "The sick must not pay for the debt crisis left by the previous administration. But the NHS is a priority for reform too. Investment has not been matched by reform. So we will reform the NHS to use those resources more effectively for the benefit of patients."

At the heart of the blueprint are family doctors, who will take over the purchase of care and be overseen by an independent commissioning board and a new economic regulator. England's 35,000 GPs will be handed £80bn of taxpayers' money and be forced to form consortiums by 2013 – there will be no opportunity to opt out of the new system. These 500 consortiums will commission treatment from hospitals on behalf of patients. At present, the NHS works via primary care trusts and the Department of Health determines each trust's spending priorities, which involves managing GPs' surgeries.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/jul/12/nhs-health-reform-andrew-lansley

[regnaD kciN]

1. So much for the promise that the Cameron administration would be "moderate"...

Once Thatcher's party, always Thatcher's party. :grr:

[Dawson Leery]

2. Once a tory always a tory.

The LibDems may have ruined themselves by agreeing to this coalition.

[daleo]

3. How long until the Lib-Dems pull the plug?

I don't think their supporters had any notion of supporting Thatcher II when they voted Lib-Dem.

[Proletariatprincess]

4. I hope the Brits don't take this lying down...

UK is adopting USA'a worst ideas, it seems. Even the political campaigns are being Yankeefied and are becoming more and more costly.
Then, of course, there are the stupid unnecesary wars and mistreatment of prisoners and torture. Not that the Brits haven't been guilty of such things in their own history, but were wise enough to cease and disist...until Blair became Bush The Moron's poodle.
This is very bad news for the UK.

[regnaD kciN]

7. Cause and effect...???

UK is adopting USA'a worst ideas, it seems. Even the political campaigns are being Yankeefied and are becoming more and more costly.

Adopt American-style political campaigns, wind up with American-style political ideas. :-(

[DefenseLawyer]

5. Who put Arne Duncan in charge of the NHS? n/t

[KakistocracyHater]

6. the wealthy are really taking axes to all forms of civilization now

*

[dipsydoodle]

8. None of you remote from the UK

should overlook the fact that part privatisation goes back years here.

From 2003 : What are Public Private Partnerships ?

Any collaboration between public bodies, such as local authorities or central government, and private companies tends to be referred to a public-private partnership (PPP).

Tony Blair is keen to expand the range of private public partnerships because he believes it is the best way to secure the improvements in public services that Labour promised at the last election.

He believes private companies are often more efficient and better run than bureaucratic public bodies.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1518523.stm