TORY changes to the NHS were ‘opposed by patients, the public and NHS staff, but politicians pushed through the changes regardless’ Dr Mark Porter, head of the British Medical Association (BMA) said yesterday.
He was responding to a report by think tank ‘The Kings Fund’.
This slammed the Tory Health and Social Care Act and its reforms.
The report concluded ‘that the reforms have resulted in a top-down reorganisation of the NHS and this has been distracting and damaging.’
During the re-organisation, all 151 primary care trusts were abolished as were 10 regional strategic health authorities.
While conceding that the ‘marketisation’ of the NHS had increased, the Fund also claimed that Labour’s warning that the NHS is being privatised is ‘exaggerated’.
The report urged no more top-down reorganisations, stating that: ‘The next government should continue the emphasis on patient safety and quality of care but with less emphasis on regulation and more on supporting NHS leaders and staff to improve care.
‘Further top-down reorganisations must be avoided …
BMA leader, Porter added: ‘This report highlights the damage that has been done to the health service and the major shortcomings of the Act, which distracted attention from rising pressure on services and cost billions to introduce.
‘The damage done to the NHS has been profound and intense, but what is needed now is an honest and frank debate over how we can put right what has gone wrong without the need for another unnecessary and costly top-down reorganisation.’
The evaluation by the King’s Fund think tank says the coalition government’s changes had ‘wasted three years’, ‘failed patients’, ‘caused financial distress’ and left a ‘strategic vacuum’.
Chris Ham, chief executive of the King’s Fund said: ‘If the government hadn’t pursued misguided reforms … we believe the NHS would be in better shape.’
