If you live in England
These are changing times for the NHS in England. The
Government’s new Health and Social Care bill has set out some
radical new approaches to the way the NHS is going to be
run.
These changes will not come into effect until April
2013, but you might start noticing differences as the NHS
gears up for the deadline.
Take action now!
Petition the
Government to freeze prescription charges and
increase awareness of prescription prepayment
certificates.
The Patient and Public Involvement Programme (PPIP) at NICE and
the National Clinical Guideline Centre are looking for patients and
carers to join the guideline development group on atrial
fibrillation.
The Department of Health is working on a
new system of patient-led inspections of the hospital environment.
Take part
in the survey.
Attend the Health
Care Partnership (UK) conference, and add a patient and carer
voice to the British Cardiovascular Society.
Get heard in England
There are lots of ways to have a voice in the NHS in
England. Three good places to start are Local
Involvement Networks (LINks), GP Practices
and NHS Trusts, and through your MP.
Local Involvement
Networks (LINks) should be your first port of call for having your
say on the NHS in England. However, sadly LINks coverage is
patchy. Visit the
LINks website to find out more, and see what’s happening
in your local area.
If you’re not near an
active LINk, there are other ways to get your voice heard.
Ask at your
local GP practice about joining their
Patient
Participation Group. Look online for the website of your
local
NHS Trust of
Foundation Trust and see whether they have published
information about how to get involved. This is usually
a good place to start as all NHS Trusts have a duty to engage
patients and carers in their decision making processes.
If you have a specific
issue or campaign in mind, you may also want to consider writing to
your Member of Parliament (MP). You can find out which MP
represents you by visiting
parliament.uk or calling the House
of Commons Information Office on 020 7219 4272.
The NHS in England: as it is now
The NHS is a complex machine – but the more you understand it,
the easier you will find it to navigate and influence. Below
you will find some basic information about how the NHS is
structured today, as well as a brief summary of the changes that
are coming as the new structures settle in for April 2013.
I am pleased to have the opportunity to give some of my time and energy back to ensure others can benefit as much as I did.
Find out more
The NHS in England is
the responsibility of the
Department of Health.
The Department of Health is headed up by the Secretary of State for
Health.
There are 10
Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs) acorss England. They
are responsible for developing plans for improving health services
in their region. They make sure that local health services
are delivering high quality care and performing well.
Primary
Care Trusts (PCTs) cover a smaller area than SHAs and are
responsible for actually making sure that the local population has
access to the services they need. They do this by researching
what the population needs and then buying in the services (referred
to as commissioning) that meet these needs. A PCT can buy
services from:
• Acute Trusts (Hospitals)
• Mental Health Trusts
• Ambulance Trusts
• GP practices
• Dental practices
• Community pharmacies
• And more
NHS Trusts provide
healthcare services on the ground. They generally specialise
on one area of healthcare such as acute care, mental health,
learning disability, community care or ambulance services.
Since 2004, Trusts have been able to apply to change their
status to
NHS Foundation Trusts. The advantage of doing this is that they
are able to maintain more control over their work and budgets and
are independent of SHAs and the Department of Health.
NHS England: Proposed structures for 2013
From April 2013, SHAs and PCTs will be abolished. They
will be replaced by the NHS Commissioning Board and a countrywide
network of Clinical Commissioning Groups.
Further information
The
NHS Commissioning Board
will provide leadership for the new commissioning system. The
Board will advise the Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and hold
them to account for the decisions they make. The Board will
hold the £80bn budget allocated to the NHS. It will
distribute £60bn of this directly to the CCGs and will keep the
remainder to directly commission primary care services (eg GPs) and
specialist services.
From April 2013 most
of the commissioning in the NHS will be done by the CCGs.
They will have responsibility for buying the services that will
meet the needs of their local population. The CCGs will be
led by GPs as they are best placed to understand the needs of their
communities. However, the groups will also have to have a
registered nurse, and hospital doctor and two lay representatives
on their boards and must consult with a wide range of clinical
specialists before making decisions.
The Government has
stated that the new NHS reforms will strengthen the voice of
patients in the NHS in England. The main structure in place
to support this will be the new HealthWatch.
HealthWatch England will be a new national body representing the
views of the people who use the health and social care
services. It will support and represent a large network of
Local HealthWatch groups which will be funded by Local Authorities.
A Local HealthWatch will take over from the existing LINk, but will
also have some additional functions. They will help make sure that
the views and feedback from patients and carers are taken into
account during local commissioning decisions.