Health and Social care Bill - RCN comment

Published: 18 January 2011

Earlier this week, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and a number of health organisations set out key concerns around the Health and Social Care Bill in a letter to The Times newspaper. On the eve (18 January) of the publication of the Bill, RCN Chief Executive & General Secretary, Dr Peter Carter, said:

“This seminal bill has the potential to transform the NHS, however, at the same time as the service is being tasked with saving £20 billion, we are concerned that the proposed reforms  are too much too soon.

“We will be studying each and every clause of the bill to make sure that the reforms deliver better care for patients. Nurses will have a pivotal role to play in the proposed new NHS structure, and we call on the Government to listen to their concerns. It is nursing staff who spend the majority of their time directly with patients.”

-Ends -

Notes for Editor

1.      For further information, interviews or illustrations please contact the RCN Media Office on 0207 647 3633, press.office@rcn.org.uk or visit  http://www.rcn.org.uk/newsevents/media

2.      The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is the voice of nursing across the UK and is the largest professional union of nursing staff in the world. The RCN promotes the interest of nurses and patients on a wide range of issues and helps shape healthcare policy by working closely with the UK Government and other national and international institutions, trade unions, professional bodies and voluntary organizations

3.     The full text of the letter to The Times:

Letter to The Times 
Sir,
Radical reform of the NHS in England is expected to come a major step closer this week, with publication of the Health and Social Care Bill. As unions and professional organisations representing the 1.3 million staff who make up the NHS, we are extremely concerned that the Government is not heeding the warnings about key elements of the proposals. We recognise the need to provide NHS services more cost-effectively, but we believe this can and must be achieved without taking unnecessary risks and damaging care.
One of the major concerns is the role that the NHS’s economic regulator, Monitor, will be given to ensure that any willing providers, including NHS and voluntary organisations, and commercial companies, are able to compete to provide all NHS services. In addition, the 2011-12 operating framework for the NHS, published last month, revealed that providers will be able to offer services to commissioners at less than the published mandatory tariff price.
There is clear evidence that price competition in healthcare is damaging. Research by economists at Imperial College shows that, following the introduction of competition in the NHS in the 1990s, under a system that allowed hospitals to negotiate prices, there was a fall in clinical quality. With scarce resources there is a serious danger that the focus will be on cost, not quality.
Enforced competition will also make it harder for NHS staff to work collaboratively in multidisciplinary teams, across organisational boundaries, to create the integrated care pathways that patients want and need, and that will help to make services more efficient.
Furthermore the sheer scale of the ambitious and costly reform programme, and the pace of change, while at the same time being expected to make £20 billion of savings, is extremely risky and potentially disastrous.
Dr Peter Carter, Royal College of Nursing
Dr Hamish Meldrum
British Medical Association
Karen Jennings
Unison
Karen Reay
Unite
Professor Cathy Warwick
Royal College of Midwives
Phil Gray
Chartered Society of Physiotherapy