Today is the beginning of a new era in the NHS. For supporters of the Health and Social Care Act it represents the implementation of a necessary shift to cope with rising demand and cost:
“[6] The main aims of the Act are to change how NHS care is commissioned through the greater involvement of clinicians and a new NHS Commissioning Board; to improve accountability and patient voice; to give NHS providers new freedoms to improve quality of care; and to establish a provider regulator to promote economic, efficient and effective provision.” [explanatory notes for Health and Social Care Act]
For its detractors, it is popularly described as the end of the NHS and an entire political party has arisen as a result. The debate has often been extremely heated but generally confined to those already in touch with medical “politics”. Anecdotally (I have no supporting evidence for this) wondering around the corridors of a random english hospital may not find you many staff with a clear knowledge of the details of what has happened on 1st April 2013. It is this lack of knowledge that may explain, despite some of the vitriol, why contributions by members voting on the Royal Colleges support for and against the bill last year were not that impressive.
| College | Total Voting Members | Number of Respondents | Votes against the Bill | Response Rate |
| RCPL [1] | 25,417 | 8,878 | 6,092 (69%) | 35% |
| RCPCH [2] | 10,289 | 1,492 | 1,184 (79.36%) | 14.5% |
| RCGP [3] | 33,837 in England | nearly 2,600 completed responses | 90% support withdrawal of Bill | 7.7% |
Independents have attempted to explain the detail (this summary from fullfact.org is good). There is also a visual timeline of events via the Kings Fund.
A great many commentators have put their hats into the ring about what will happen in the future. I am neither experienced or wise enough to do this. As a trainee, albeit a relatively senior one, I have been disappointed about the level of information given to the future workforce about the changes. It is is a complex area, the Health Act is a huge piece of legislation with arguments of recent terminology on the section 75 amendment making the area even more confusing.
What is without doubt is new ability to widen opportunity for any “provider” to deliver services for patients. I don’t think I am naive about healthcare as a business. The NHS has always run to accounts, tendered and has paid private companies to deliver operations it was falling behind on. But I am old enough to remember a day when there was one National Rail Service. I don’t know if it was true that ‘nationalisation’ was not providing effecient, cost effective services but rail is now clearly a competitive business, even though the trains are often not competing for the same track. However, as a regular train traveller, I know my experiences between the companies are often very different, that even if they do run on time it is at a cost or comfort detriment and I certainly don’t know who best embodies the rail service.
I ask myself is this really how I want to see the NHS?
References
1. Results of RCP Health and Social Care Bill Survey.
http://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/press-releases/results-rcp-health-and-social-care-bill-survey (last accessed 1st April 2013)
2. RCPCH votes for Government to withdraw the Health and Social Care Bill.
http://www.rcpch.ac.uk/news/rcpch-votes-government-withdraw-health-and-social-care-bill (last accessed 1st April 2013)
3. RCGP members support withdrawal of the Bill, says RCGP survey.
http://www.rcgp.org.uk/news/2012/january/rcgp-members-support-withdrawal-of-the-bill-says-rcgp-survey.aspx (last accessed 1st April 2013)