Happy 60th birthday NHS
Saturday, 05 Jul 2008 11:00
As the NHS celebrates its 60th birthday ministers are looking to the future
Sixty years ago on July 5th the UK's National Health Service came into effect, promising to provide people with "all medical, dental and nursing care" they need.
Since then it has cared for tens of millions of people and saved hundreds of thousands of lives.
People now live on average at least ten years longer than they did in 1948; deaths from cancer and heart disease have fallen dramatically; and Britain is one of the safest places in the world to give birth.
But almost daily reports claim that care is failing certain groups in society, suggesting action that must be taken to end postcode lotteries in care and to protect the most vulnerable people in society.
If the government's vision for the next ten years of the NHS - laid out in the Next Stage Review released by health secretary Alan Johnson - is to become a reality then the NHS as it stands in 2008 could be changed significantly.
Gordon Brown has expressed his belief that it is right to renew the NHS "to meet the challenges ahead".
He wants the NHS to use technological advances to improve care; personalise the health service to meet individual's needs; and to shift the focus on to preventative care to stop health problems arising in the first place.
"These are the challenges for the next 60 years, but I believe we can only meet them by remaining true to the values on which the NHS was founded – free at the point of use, open to all and rooted in the British belief in fairness and compassion," the prime minister has said.
How can people expect the NHS to change?
General practice surgeries
Patients will have greater choice of GP practice and better information to help them choose.
The government is to develop a new funding system, ensuring better rewards for GPs who provide responsive, accessible and high quality services. The NHS Choices website will also provide more information about all primary and community care services, so that people can make informed choices.
It is likely that new GP centres will be built. Polyclinics have been proposed for London that would provide a greater range of services, for example X-rays could be undertaken there.
While concern has been expressed that in the rest of the country local GP surgeries could close while fewer, larger centres open, the Department of Health has maintained that any changes will supplement existing care.
Hospital care
An NHS constitution is set to outline what patients can expect while they are in hospital and what staff also have a right to expect.
Within hospitals - as with all healthcare areas - staff will be given more say over decisions about care provision.
Rather than targets to reduce problems such as long waiting times - which Labour have reduced - the emphasis will now be on the quality of care provided.
Funding provision will be changed so that, for the first time, patients' own assessments of the success of their treatment and the quality of their experiences will have a direct impact on the way hospitals are funded.
The emphasis on reducing healthcare acquired infections such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile will also continue over the next decade.
Drugs
One of the biggest problems facing the NHS is the postcode lottery affecting the provision of drugs. While treatment may have been recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), some health trusts are not able to afford all recommended drugs.
The Next Stage Review is set to tackle this, with a pledge that patients will be guaranteed access to the most clinically and cost effective drugs and treatments approved by Nice.
Appraisals by Nice will also be speeded up so that new drugs become available on the NHS.
The controversial issue of 'top-up' treatment, where patients who can afford to pay for additional treatment deemed not to be cost-effective, is also being reviewed. As such the idea of equal treatment for all is set to hit the headlines.