A welcome prescription from senior clinicians

Civitas, 7 May 2010

Whoever, whenever and whatever government is formed from the malaise of today’s election results would do well to read this welcome letter to the Guardian from some of the country’s most senior clinicians who argue in no uncertain terms that large-scale reconfiguration of services will be required in the coming years to both pull the NHS through tight financial times, and improve quality of care.  Instead of pandering to local hospitals operating often unsustainable 19th century models of health care – as is suggested MPs will do in this HSJ survey – MPs and ministers should be putting their weight behind the difficult decisions PCTs (the commissioners of care in the NHS) will have to be making; drawing chronic care out into the community and centralising specialist services.  Decisions that will also, no doubt, entail using providers from outside the current NHS setting…  BMA watch out!