In June 2010, the government first set out their proposed changes to the health service in England in the white paper, Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS. On the 19 January 2011, the Health and Social Care Bill 2011 was laid before parliament for the first time. The bill provides the legal framework for the NHS reforms.
The bill seeks to increase diversity of supply, encourage greater competition, and increase choice for patients. It devolves responsibility for much healthcare commissioning to local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) comprised of GP practices, and introduces a new national body, the NHS Commissioning Board to oversee CCGs. You can read more about these new bodies in the RCP glossary of organisations and timescales
RCP involvement:
The scope of the bill goes much further than previous reforms in its application of market-based principles to the provision of health care. It seeks to increase diversity of supply, promote competition, and increase choice for patients.
The RCP urged government not to underestimate the challenge of achieving reform and efficiency savings simultaneously. The RCP continues to press to ensure that:
- Specialist doctors are integral to commissioning and service planning arrangements
- Competition is not at the expense of quality, collaboration between professionals or integration of services
- There are strong safeguards to protect against the potentially damaging effects of service fragmentation
- The education and training of the next generation of doctors is not compromised
- Commissioning retains its focus on minimising health inequalities and equitable access to service across the country
The RCP believes the crucial test of the reforms will be the extent to which they translate into improvements on the front line and promote the principle of joint working and high quality care integrated around the needs of patients.
You can read more details about the RCP position in the sections below on quality, education and training, competition and collaboration, and public health.
The RCP’s latest briefing for the House of Lords recommends a number of specific amendments to the Health and Social Care Bill – read more in our briefing for House of Lords committee stage. You can find out more about how the RCP has responded to the health reforms in our health reforms timeline.
