Health Matters | Paul Corrigan's blog

Following on from my post on Monday about the way in which local CCGs might use the Secretary of State’s mandate to hold the NCB to account, I have had my attention drawn to some activity from the CCGs themselves. I was suggesting that since the mandate lays a number of responsibilities on the NCB to listen to the changes that the CCGs say are necessary to bring about integrated care, the CCGs could use it to hold the NCB to account. Read the rest of this entry »

A few weeks ago we learnt that the publication of the Francis Report on Mid Staffs will now be put off until January. In the interim there have been some concerns shared within the NHS about how the report might understand its world.

As Paul Hodgkin from Patient Opinion said at the conference I mentioned in Monday’s post, if the answer that the Francis report comes up with is ‘more regulation’, then they are probably asking the wrong question. Read the rest of this entry »

In July the Government published its response to its initial reforms about public health. Whilst their original reforms had failed to excite as much public interest as their plans for GP commissioning, they did contain some very radical changes to the relationship between the Department of Health and public health.

Rather oddly, at a national level the public health reforms went in the opposite direction to those proposed for the NHS. Whereas the stated aim of the NHS reforms was to remove the Secretary of State’s accountability for the NHS (something that the 2011 reforms of their 2010 reforms changed radically), their original reforms of the Department’s relationship to public health abolished the independence of the Health Protection Agency (HPA) and brought their powers under the direct control of the Secretary of State. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday I argued strongly that given the central fact that the NHS is paid for out of national taxation, and given this is key to the principles of the NHS that the public want to keep, the role of local government should not be to have an executive say in the commissioning of health care. NHS spending is 100% national resources from taxation and accountability should be with central and not local government. Read the rest of this entry »

For the last few weeks I have been developing arguments that relate to the first two of the four listening themes that the Government set up when they had a very  belated pause for a bit of a think about their NHS reforms. I talked about choice and competition and, over Easter, blogged concerning the second group “How to ensure public accountability and patient involvement in the new system” Read the rest of this entry »

I am running through the four different groups that the Government have set up to organise listening during their 2 month gap.

As I did with the previous listening group, the way in which I would like to frame this policy discussion is controversial. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday morning the Chair of the Health Select Committee, Stephen Dorrell, said that the Government had ‘lost control of its health policy’.

Even to someone like me this seemed a pretty stark accusation. A Government with a large majority was forcing its health bill through the Commons – so in what sense could it be said to have ‘lost control’? Read the rest of this entry »

Never quite sure about writing anything about the House of Commons in case I get done for contempt but on March 1^st I gave evidence to the House of Commons Health Select Committee. They are carrying out an in depth enquiry into how the Bill will ensure Commissioning works in particular looking at the role of the NHS Commissioning Board. They had asked me to give evidence – so it was pretty relaxed. Read the rest of this entry »

There are several really important issues in the chapter of Next steps that deals with local government. But the ones that will matter most to the survival of the NHS are seemingly technical paragraphs 5.39- 5.45.

These concern local authorities’ right for significant changes to designated NHS services, to be referred to the Secretary of State.  This is important to local authorities. Read the rest of this entry »

I think I should clarify something I said in last Thursday’s post on the Comprehensive Spending Review as some commentators have brought two things together and misunderstood. I’ll start the explanation by exploring why the coalition Government’s relationship with Local Government is so difficult. Read the rest of this entry »