Can't remember when I subscribed to HSJ online thingy but it was in response to some lame comments made by shrinks on there....friend sent me details. Anyway, that aside, have mostly avoided it because it is aimed at quote - Health Professionals unquote - and I don't want to be spending too much time around those types.
Latest update from the HSJ is email encouraging people to complete their survey on the effects the outcomes of Govt White Paper will have on NHS reform. I assume the people it would prefeer responding to it's survey are NHS professionals but I took up the challenge, whatever.
From the titbits of info I am picking up... here and there, the shift will be from PCT to GP Commissioning.
I actually found the questions directed to specific answers or more likely not allowing for a broad and most probably more general view on what 'people' think the outcomes might be. Then again, it was aimed at NHS staff rather than Jo Public (and patients) at large. Naughty HSJ...aren't you forgetting where your bread and butter comes from?????
I have to say, of the about 10 questions that were asked, I answered half-ish of them with "Don't know" because what a govt says it sets out to do and what actually happens are often very different things. However, I do believe, it should (whether it does or not) cut out alot of unnecessary and surplus to requirement management that's sole purpose seems to be to provide layers of bureacracy, at present.
I like the idea of GPs having more power to have specialisms within their surgeries (should they choose to use the money that way) and also the power to refer patients on to specialists (not necessarilay the ones they are referred to now). Is this where a possible choice agenda for MH patients could begin in earnest? Maybe...I think that depends on the GPs...or individual GPs more like..and the relationships they have with their patients who have MH problems.
It could all be part of some privatising of NHS..not so much through the backdoor as via a window (of opportunity???). If I was asked "Will that be a good thing?" I would have to say "Depends on the quality of the services that will be given and who will have access to them". I think there is enough of a divide between the rich and poor in this country already and we already have private healthcare systemS for those with the dosh who can then CHOOSE to opt out. Ho hum!
Would have been more democratic, on the part of the government, to do some of this consulting with the public (as pioneers of The Big Society) before producing the White Paper but we all know that rhetoric is exactly that and this Government is hell bent on getting what it wants. The rest of us are just along for the beating!
Not sure if anyone can access this but if you want to have a look at the survey, hope the link works.
http://www.zoomerang.com/SurveyWEB22AWM95HEED
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Think most people feel a bit ambiguous about the proposed shift from the SHA/PCT setup to direct commissioning by GPs. On the one hand the mindless bureaucracy had to go that's for sure , on the other no-one's quite sure what the GP commissioning consortia beast will look like or whether their local consortia beast will be mental health service user friendly.
ReplyDeleteIt also feels a bit like we've entered into a phoney war period with the ideological battle lines drawn up and the wailing of handcranked early warning sirens piercing the air but not a shot fired in anger yet by any side.