Date: 21/06/2010

Organisation: Pulse

Extract:

GP leaders, academic bodies and charities react to the publication of the new NHS Operating Framework.

Dr Laurence Buckman, GPC chair

'Patients should have good access to GPs. However, while this target may have been intended to improve access it has in fact had adverse consequences.

'At the moment practices need to have enough appointments available on the day or the following day to meet the target, so those who want to book in advance find there are fewer appointments available.

'We would therefore welcome the scrapping of this target as it will give GPs greater flexibility to organise their appointment booking system in a way that best suits their local patient population.'

Dr Keith Brent, deputy chair of the BMA’s Consultants Committee

'Waiting time targets have improved the NHS in many respects, but they have also resulted in pressure on staff to make inappropriate decisions. Patients must always be treated as individuals and we welcome this commitment to allow doctors the freedom to do what is clinically appropriate.'

Nigel Edwards, acting chief executive of the NHS Confederation

'Cutting management costs will provide some respite for the NHS in meeting increased demand for much of this year, but the figure of £1.85 billion is relatively small compared with over £15 billion of savings that the service needs to make over the next 4 years.

“The removal of centrally driven targets should give NHS organisations the ability to be more responsive to local needs and more innovative but we need to make sure we do not lose many of the gains they have made in reducing waiting lists and expanding access.'

Professor Chris Ham, CEO of The King’s Fund

‘While there has been criticism of the performance management system that accompanied them, targets have proved effective in driving down waiting times.

‘In removing the 18 weeks referral to treatment target, we will now have to see whether patients’ rights and publishing data are sufficient to prevent waiting times creeping back up.

‘There is a strong case for ensuring close alignment between community services currently provided by PCTs and GP practices. Therefore the decisions taken about the future of community services should be informed by the views of GPs, not least because they have an increasingly significant role in commissioning health services.'

Dr Jennifer Dixon, director at the Nuffield Trust

'The coalition Government’s plans to move to outcome targets rather than process targets are welcome.

'But given that waiting for care is such a key part of patient experience on which the NHS is judged by the public, and given the miserable history of long waiting times in the NHS in the past, waiting times should remain firm targets.'

Dr John Heyworth, president of the College of Emergency Medicine

'We welcome the Secretary of State's announcement, which is in line with the College's long held view that the 98% standard should be reconfigured.

'We look forward to working with the DH to develop more appropriate, clinically relevant, quality and outcome measures that build on the improvements already achieved in our EDs and further enhance patient care.'

Ruth Sutherland, acting chief operating officer at the Alzheimer’s Society

'Proposals for "pathway tariffs" and expanding "re-enablement support" show huge promise to improving care for 750, 000 people with dementia and their carers. We now need more detail to find out if they could help to deliver the National Dementia Strategy for England at a local level and change lives.

'Any move towards local accountability must not mean a move away from national leadership.'

Read this article on the Pulse website

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