NHS Future Forum publishes key recommendations

The NHS Future Forum has today published key recommendations to Government on the future for the modernisation of the National Health Service.

Set up as an independent group in order to ‘pause, listen and reflect’ on the content of the existing Health and Social Care Bill, the Forum has made a series of recommendations under the themes of choice and competition; clinical advice and leadership; education and training; and patient involvement and public accountability. 

You can read all the reports and the summary of recommendations on the Department of Health website.

The recommendations include:

• The pace of the reforms should be varied so that the service carries them through only when it is able to do so.
• The Health Secretary Andrew Lansley should retain ultimate accountability for the NHS in England.
• Not just GPs but also nurses, specialist doctors and other clinicians should be involved in making local decisions about the commissioning of care.
• Competition should be used to secure greater choice and better value for patients. It should be used not as an end in itself, but to improve quality, promote integration and increase citizens' rights.
• The regulator Monitor's duty to "promote" competition should be removed.

On Thursday, NCVO will be launching a joint report with the King’s Fund, looking at the implications that the Health Bill could have specifically on voluntary and community organisations. We recently urged the government to strengthen measures in the bill to ensure that GP consortia incorporate the expertise and knowledge of their local voluntary and community sector in their thinking.

You can read NCVO's response to the Future Forum report here.