Earlier, Fraser mentioned the work of the think-tank Reform, and today that same group released an insightful – and scathing – report on the state of the NHS. Download it, read it, and internalise it, as it should set the healthcare agenda for the momentous year ahead.The report’s key message is that the Government is talking the talk on beneficial NHS reform, but not walking the walk. This floundering situation is all the more worrying as we’re about to enter healthcare’s equivalent of a “perfect storm” – during which demographic, lifestyle and technological changes will place an unprecedented level of stress on the already-creaky health system.
The answer isn’t the new charter that we’ve been lead to expect from the Government, nor is it Brown’s faux-Blairism. Instead, Reform outline an economic constitution; a set of principles by which a well-managed, less-costly and customer-orientated healthcare system could be formed. Here are their guidelines in full:
• “More power to customers.
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