Health minister Lord Darzi has released the final report in his Next Stage Review of the NHS. The report is the culmination of nine months of consultation and engagement with clinicians, allied health professionals, patients and stakeholder groups which began in July 2007; this followed a review of London's NHS that Lord Darzi conducted in 2007 before becoming a health minister in June 2007.
Lord Darzi's Next Stage Review was charged with developing a vision for the health service over the next decade by engaging with patients, staff and the public. This report provides a vision of the future direction of government health policy.
Three key issues
We believe that three of the key issues for RCP Fellows and Members emerging from the report are:
Moving from targets to quality outcomes
We agree that change, and health services in general, should be driven by good evidence about the best clinical practice and the results this achieves for patients. Therefore, we welcome Lord Darzi's proposal to move away from a health system based on targets to one based on quality and outcomes.
Our recent report on Acute Care recommended the development of national clinical performance indicators to benchmark and improve performance.
Establishment of Medical Education for England
We welcome the establishment of Medical Education for England as an independent advisory body. We are particularly pleased that the majority of members of MEE will be clinicians, who we feel are the people best placed to understand and plan for medical training needs.
Leadership
We support the idea of more doctors being fully involved in managing the health service. In collaboration with Birkbeck College we have introduced an MSc in medical leadership, aimed specifically at those doctors aspiring to the highest levels of health management.
We also believe that clinical leadership is required for the successful commissioning of health services that lies at the heart of Lord Darzi's vision.