Posts Tagged darzi
First, do no harm
Posted by James Gubb in Health on 27/07/2009
Ever since Lord Darzi’s publication last year, High Quality Care for All, all the rhetoric is in the higher echelons of the NHS is that quality is the new organising principle (as if it shouldn’t always have been). It’s the new ‘buzzword’, replacing ‘tariff’, ‘payment-by-results’, ‘foundation status’ etc., according to the former minister. Certainly – and to Lord Darzi’s credit – it’s much more on the radar, and clinicians are more engaged than the passengers they have been in recent years.
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Spot the difference….
Posted by James Gubb in Health on 14/11/2008
It’s illuminating reading the DH’s two most powerful policy documents under New Labour, The NHS Plan (2000) and Lord Darzi’s recent review of the NHS, High Quality Care for All (2008). The latter is certainly more refined and less concerned with quantity, not making attempts to dictate the need for x more staff, equipment, buildings etc. Instead, it sets quality of care as the ‘irrevocable’ first. But are they actually that different?
Still the sick man of Europe
Posted by James Gubb in Health on 13/03/2008
A new report, published in the latest edition of the Civitas Review, argues NHS performance on efficiency, quality and – most damagingly so far as its ideals are concerned – equity, has flailed badly over the past ten years despite record increases in funding.
The problems are systemic. The undeniable talents of doctors, nurses and health care professionals working in the NHS are being stymied by perverse incentives created by Whitehall.
The NHS needs to be considering more radical options than those under review by Lord Darzi: it should be looking to Europe, and particularly the Netherlands, for better ways of providing universal and comprehensive health care. To read the report click here.
Innovation needs competition
Posted by James Gubb in Health on 04/10/2007
One of Lord Darzi’s key recommendations in his interim report released today is the creation of a Health Innovation Unit – with a budget of £100m ‘to help the NHS develop and deploy hi-tech health care such as medical devices and diagnostics’.
But it is wholly unclear that a new central body is what is required to drive innovation in the NHS. The NHS already has such a body – the National Institute for Innovation and Improvement – and its lack of impact has been noticeable.
A report released today by Civitas argues that a Health Innovation Unit will only help if the NHS follows its reform agenda to the full and embraces diversity and competition; PCTs must be empowered as strong commissioners, providers must be autonomous and patients must have real choice. Central direction needs to end.
Full press release
Full report
Sir Ara’s grand design
Posted by James Gubb in Health on 12/07/2007
Just as you think some kind of consensus has emerged to let things be in the NHS for the moment, another bombshell comes along. ‘Localise where possible, centralise where necessary’, runs the catchy slogan to the latest reform package aimed at the NHS. The report, undertaken by Sir Ara Darzi, the new junior health minister, looks at the state of healthcare in London recommends what can only be described as a dizzying array of service transformations for the capital. But this one, if properly interpreted, isn’t all bad.