Commenting on the King’s Speech today and the proposed NHS Modernisation Bill, Professor Graham Cookson, Chief Executive of the Office of Health Economics, said: “Today’s King’s Speech…
Commenting on the King’s Speech today and the proposed NHS Modernisation Bill, Professor Graham Cookson, Chief Executive of the Office of Health Economics, said:
“Today’s King’s Speech puts a focus back on what many have long argued: without fundamental reform, the NHS’ long-term sustainability is at stake.
The NHS Modernisation Bill is a significant structural shake up – it will abolish NHS England and shift responsibility for health spending to ministers and local health boards. Alongside it, the Single Patient Record is a welcome step to standardising and streamlining how patient data is shared across health and social care. Done right, these can be useful changes to the governance and the day-to-day operations of the NHS.
But this still leaves a central question unanswered. Where is the money coming from?
The NHS needs funding. But stretched budgets across government mean all of the NHS’ competing demands cannot be addressed.
The question with NHS funding is no longer public vs private. We already have private funding embedded in the NHS: primary care is delivered by independent contractors; private providers are already working in elective care, and more and more of the population are opting for private healthcare.
The NHS isn’t exempt from private financing. The only question is whether we’re honest about plural provision and whether we shape it deliberately or just let it happen to us.
Working with the private sector and using private finance within the NHS doesn’t have to mean privatising the NHS. Nor does it mean ripping up the social contract that underpins the NHS – it can, and should, still be free at the point of use. But the careful and considered use of private financing for infrastructure investment, blended finance and social impact bonds for prevention, and the adoption of innovation from the private sector should all be up for discussion.
Ultimately, although today’s proposals are a welcome step forward, without radically rethinking the NHS funding model, these proposed reforms will merely be a band-aid over an already haemorrhaging system.”