NHS bill accountability attacked
By politics.co.uk staff
Health charities have united to criticise the health and social care bill, which they say denies patients a voice.
Organisations including the British Health Foundation, the Alzheimer’s Society and the Stroke Association used a letter to the Times to criticise the coalition’s health reforms.
The eight charities said “a gap between rhetoric and reality” existed when it came to the government’s goal of putting patient involvement and democratic accountability at the heart of the health system.
“The reforms will place £80 billion of the NHS budget into the hands of GPs, but plans to make GP consortia accountable to the public are far too weak,” they wrote.
“The plans will allow local authorities to replace existing democratically elected overview and scrutiny committees with their own systems.”
The bill plans on establishing HealthWatch bodies which the Department of Health claims will improve scrutiny of health bodies – by, for example, triggering inspections of NHS services.
The charities disagreed, however, saying the proposed reforms “do little to give patients a stronger voice at a local level”.
They added: “Greater patient and public involvement leads to better care and more efficient services yet the proposed reforms do little to give patients a stronger voice at a local level.”
The other charities signing the letter were Asthma UK, Breakthrough Breast Cancer, Diabetes UK, National Voices and Rethink.
