Full steam ahead for NHS boards

The government is setting up new NHS boards that will act independently to allocate resources and oversee the commissioning of care.

The reform has been a standing health policy of the Conservatives since 2008 and was a key manifesto pledge during the recent general election, which saw a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition come to power.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley is now aiming to turn Monitor, the existing foundation trust regulator, into a full economic regulator for the NHS to pave the way for the new boards.

But during the election campaign Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb attacked the idea of an independent board as “nonsense”, saying that “to have an independent, non-elected quango responsible for £100 billion of public money is simply incredible”.

Responding to the coalition’s plans NHS Confederation chief executive Steve Barnett said: “The plan for a new NHS board places patient engagement and medical leadership at the heart of decision making in the NHS and it will be important for everyone working within the service to understand and respond to this new approach.

“Proposed changes to the regulation of the NHS need to be designed so that there is clarity in the roles of CQC and Monitor so they can then help the service to improve care, reduce bureaucracy and increase financial efficiency.”

Barnett concluded with a warning that, however efficiently run and democratically administered the NHS becomes, any improvements will be “dwarfed by the problems created if we [the NHS] fail to provide for the care of elderly people and those with long term medical conditions”.

Barnett believes it is this that will be one of the “defining challenges” facing the current government.

Ben Adams