Ministers call for localised NHS
The Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, and the Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles, have sought to clarify how the NHS will work in the future following the publication of the recent White Paper 'Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS'. They explained that local people and professionals will have more say in shaping healthcare in their areas, with NHS, social care and public health services working closer together.
Power has to be devolved to local people so that decisions about their health are made by them, or by people that best understand their needs,”
said Lansley.“Whitehall can’t prescribe all of this, and the health service shouldn’t wait for a rule book from government. Everyone should have their say in these consultations so we can get on with building strong local partnerships and improve people’s health.”
The ministers set out proposals explaining how patients, locally elected councillors, local authorities, public health experts and others will be expected to work side-by-side with GP consortia to make health services meet the needs of people in local areas and improve health outcomes. This partnership, led by local authorities, will, they said, mean services become more responsive, and developed in ways that fit around the people who use them.
Pickles said: “A decade of centralising, controlling government has left public services like the NHS strangled with red tape, lumbered with target after target, and weakened by the need to report to bureaucrats instead of the public. Under proposals published today, for the first time in 40 years there will be local democratic accountability and legitimacy in the NHS.”
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