In a recent announcement, the Royal College of Surgeons warned that when it comes to health spending, the standards of patient care may be compromised if GPs focus on “the lowest price” rather than quality. 

The RCS, called on greater clarity from the government on the role of doctors, as the radical health reforms will see the introduction of a clinician-led service.

The Royal College of Surgeon’s president John Black said, “Explicit minimum standards of care need to be set out by ministers to avoid GPs entering into a race to the bottom where price squeezes out quality.”

In an analysis of the Coalition’s Health Bill, he said, “Alongside colleagues in the other Medical Royal Colleges, I am concerned that some of the aspirations for a clinician-led health service envisaged by the Health Secretary are not born out by the legislation as currently drafted.”

“We are concerned that minimum standards of care are not set out in the new arrangements to introduce greater competition. It is quite right that the government seeks the best value in health spending, but this needs greater detail if we are to avoid a ‘race to the bottom’ with price squeezing out quality.”

Under the flagship bill, which was published earlier this month, will see GPs being handed power to commission treatment worth £80 billion. A new independent NHS Commissioning Board will allocate budgets and oversee the reformed service. 

Mr Black also called on the government to give more detail on how the new board would be constituted, and criticised the fact that it includes no formal requirements for clinician representation at the highest level.

“This new system will only fulfil the expectations invested in it if practising clinicians of all specialities are able to co-ordinate, and engagement between commissioning consortia and local hospitals needs to be included as a responsibility,” he added.

A Department of Health spokesman said, “There will be no compromise on quality. Our plans to modernise the NHS are firmly focused in improving quality so that all will have better healthcare.”

“The NHS Commissioning Board will allocate resources and it will also have an explicit statutory duty to promote quality improvement. National consistency in quality standards will come through commissioning guidelines, based on clinical evidence from Nice.”

As the government continues to move forward with its plan to radically reform the NHS, criticisms and concerns are not likely to abate in the coming weeks and months. At MPP Locum, we understand the concerns patients and health care professionals have.

MPP Locum ensures all our doctors, locum doctors; specialist registrar personnel are vigorously checked before being placed in key roles. We provide quality staff to our clients and are regulated by the Care Quality Commission and the NHS Buying Solutions. MPP Locums is an approved supplier of locum jobs to the NHS under the National Locum contract starting 1st July 2008 for the next three years.

MPP Locums provides a full range of medical recruitment services for NHS Trusts and private hospitals throughout the UK. Our range of specialism includes: doctor jobs, locum doctor jobs, special registrar jobs, SHO jobs and locum medical jobs. 

If you are seeking NHS doctor jobs, locum doctor jobs, special registrar jobs, SHO jobs or medical jobs, contact our registration team by telephone or register online and be part of the largest and fastest growing specialist medical recruitment agency in the UK.

In a recent announcement, the Government has said, “A patient-centred NHS is a step closer to reality” as it published its plans to radically overhaul the health service. 

The Health and Social Care bill will see the abolition of all the 151 Primary Care Trusts in England along with 10 strategic health authorities. Critics of the reform predict job losses of up to 24,500 with almost 21,000 of these losses through redundancy while the rest involve people leaving the service or retiring.

Under the proposed reform, GPs will be given around 80% of the current £100 billion a year NHS budget – to commission services for patients. As part of the reform, a new NHS commissioning board will oversee this process and new “health and wellbeing” boards are being created.

But the government’s reform has come under severe criticism from both unions and doctors who are worried that the pace of the reforms are “too much too soon.”

In defence of what critics are saying, the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley insists that the reforms that will cost £1.4 billion to implement will save the NHS more than £5 billion by 2014/15 and £1.7 billion ever year thereafter.

Mr Lansley said, “Modernising the NHS is a necessity, not an option – in order to meet rising need in the future, we need to make changes.”

“We need to take steps to improve health outcomes for patients and save the NHS £1.7 billion every year – money that will be reinvested into services for patients.”

The proposals came under fierce criticism in the House of Commons when it was announced with Labour’s leader Ed Milliband accusing Prime Minister David Cameron of being “arrogant” for pressing ahead with them despite warnings from union and health experts.

Mr Milliband said, “Patients are worried. Doctors and nurses say your reforms are extremely risky and potentially disastrous. Why are you so arrogant to think that you are right and all of the people who say you are wrong are wrong?”

As the government’s radical shake-up of the NHS comes closer to being implemented, critics of the reform are likely to become more vocal as changes take place. With the debate continuing MPP Locums, understands the concerns patients and health care professionals have as the NHS goes through its most radical shake-up. 

At MPP Locums, we ensure that all our doctors, locum doctors; specialist registrar personnel are vigorously checked before being placed in key roles. We provide quality staff to our clients and are regulated by the Care Quality Commission and the NHS Buying Solutions. MPP Locums is an approved supplier of locum doctors to the NHS under the National Locum Framework agreement.

MPP Locums provides a full range of medical recruitment services for NHS Trusts and private hospitals throughout the UK. Our range of specialism includes: doctor jobs, locum doctor jobs, special registrar jobs, SHO jobs and locum medical jobs. 

If you are seeking NHS doctor jobs, doctor jobs, special registrar jobs or SHO jobs contact our registration team by telephone or register on line and be part of the largest and fastest growing specialist medical recruitment agency in the UK. 

Ahead of Mr Lansley’s Health and Social Care Bill which will be published on Wednesday 19th January, the NHS Confederation is expected to warn that the government’s plans are “extraordinary risky” and could lead to lower standards of care.  

The NHS Confederation agrees that reform is needed, but is critical of how Health Secretary Andrew Lansley is failing to explain how the changes will benefit patients. Under the proposed NHS reform, GPs will be responsible for approximately 80% of the NHS budget when primary care trusts will be abolished. 

Under the reform, “price competition”, which will allow hospitals to undercut each other to attract patients could risk standards of patient care; the NHS Confederation is set to warn. 

“The absence of any compelling story about why the reforms are necessary or how they will translate into improved outcomes is of concern,” it will say. 

Furthermore, the NHS Confederation will add, “GPs may have to ration treatment and managers have to carry out the reforms despite being subjected to ‘unpleasant and demotivating’ attacks. There are risks to carrying out such substantial reforms at the same time as cutting managers by 45% and attempting to save £20bn by 2015.”

Former health secretary Andy Burnham, said, “The overhaul could bring chaos. These reforms threaten to unpick the fabric of our National Health Service. At just the moment when the NHS faces a huge financial challenge what do they do? They bring in a massive reorganisation on a scale that we have never seen before in the NHS.”

“It is the wrong reform at the wrong time” and claimed “Labour’s warnings about the Government’s handling of the NHS had been proven correct.”

Labour’s shadow health secretary, John Healey, said, “The Confederation’s report was a comprehensive demolition job on the Conservative-led Government’s handling of the NHS.”

“Prime Minister David Cameron had broken his promise to protect the health service.”

However, a Department of Health spokesman said, “The reforms would allow the NHS to put patients at the heart of everything it did and would liberate staff.”

“We have listened extensively to all views about our plans to modernise the NHS. And now, with thanks to some 6,000 responses, we have set out with clarity and with direction why and how we need to deliver long-lasting reform in the NHS.”

“The Government has protected the NHS budget, but it must still simplify its structure and cut the bureaucracy, which will release further savings to invest in care for patients. Modernisation of the NHS is a necessity, not an option.”

“What we are proposing is a carefully staged transition, with the ever increasing engagement of patients and the NHS staff,” he added. 

As criticisms continues on how the government’s reform of the NHS will affect services, one thing is certain, the concerns for patient care and services isn’t likely to go away. At MPP Locums, we fully understand the concerns patients and health care professionals have as the NHS goes through its most radical shake-up since its inception. 

MPP Locums provides a full range of medical recruitment services for NHS Trusts and private hospitals throughout the UK. Our range of specialism includes: doctor jobs, locum doctor jobs, special registrar jobs, SHO jobs and locum medical jobs. 

At MPP Locums, we ensure that all our doctors, locum doctors; specialist registrar personnel are vigorously checked before being placed in key roles. We provide quality staff to our clients and are regulated by the Care Quality Commission and the NHS Buying Solutions. MPP Locums is an approved supplier of locum jobs to the NHS under the National Locum contract starting 1st July 2008 for the next three years.

If you are seeking NHS doctor jobs, locum doctor jobs, special registrar jobs, SHO jobs or medical jobs, contact our registration team by telephone or register on line and be part of the largest and fastest growing specialist medical recruitment agency in the UK.

With flu cases rising in the UK, some hospitals have been told to cancel operations so that they can make way for patients suffering seriously from flu.

The NHS is preparing to increase the number of beds for a highly specialised treatment, which is often seen as the last resort. 

The main ECMO centre in England is based at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester, but seven hospitals in total are now running ECMO beds, including Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, the Royal Brompton in London and the University Hospital in south Manchester.

As of Christmas Eve, 22 ECMO beds were in use across the UK, up from five in early December. Four more additional beds are now being arranged. Furthermore, the number of beds being made available for ECMO is set to increase by cancelling planned operations at some hospitals. This will free up cardiac surgeons to move across to ECMO, which uses similar skills.

Other hospitals that have specialist respiratory centres, as well as intensive care units have also been asked to cancel planned operations. This will ensure that those patients who are well enough to leave ECMO can move into intensive care beds to make way for new patients suffering from serious flu symptoms.

A spokeswoman for the National Specialised Commissioning team said, “The National Specialised Commissioning Team has significantly increased the number of beds available for patients requiring ECMO. The number of beds has increased from five in early December to 22 with a further four beds being arranged.”

With the number of flu cases rising the government has admitted that some parts of the UK are suffering from flu vaccine shortages. With shortages of vaccines, suppliers have been asked to contact their factories in Europe for a count of UK licensed vaccines after the government admitted it was considering bringing in supplies. 

After reports of patients being unable to get jabs from their GP, the Department of Health issued a statement “insisting there was no national shortage, but admitted some areas were experiencing local supply issues.” 

As flu cases across the UK increase, further pressure on GPs and hospitals is set to increase with non-urgent operations being cancelled to free up beds for specialist wards. At MPP Locums, we are able to supply health care professionals to where the demands are needed.

MPP Locums provides a full range of medical recruitment services for NHS Trusts and private hospitals throughout the UK. Our range of specialism includes: doctor jobs, locum doctor jobs, special registrar jobs, SHO jobs and locum medical jobs. 

At MPP Locums, we ensure that all our medical personnel are vigorously checked before being placed in key roles. We provide quality staff to our clients and are regulated by the Care Quality Commission and the NHS Buying Solutions. MPP Locums is an approved supplier of locum jobs to the NHS under the National Locum contract starting 1st July 2008 for the next three years.

If you are seeking NHS doctor jobs, doctor jobs, locum doctor jobs, special registrar jobs, SHO jobs or medical jobs, contact our registration team by telephone or register on line and be part of the largest and fastest growing specialist medical recruitment agency in the UK. 

As the government presses ahead with NHS reforms, ministers have been warned that they must do more to inform the public on how the reforms will be pushed through without hitting patient care in what may be “the toughest year” in the NHS’s 62-year history. 

Nigel Edwards, acting chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said, “The Government has so far failed properly to explain how it would manage the move to a radically different set-up or protect accountability.”

The head of the independent membership organisation, whose call is published days after expert warnings that waiting lists could rise without extra Government investment in the health service, indicated that he backed the principle of the radical shake-up. 

Under the proposed reforms, GPs will take control of the NHS’ multi-billion pound budget by 2013. With this change will see primary care trusts and strategic health care being abolished as GPs and GP consortiums take on the responsibility for managing local services including planning hospital care and services for patients. 

Nigel Edwards added, “The Confederation supported the objectives and also recognised the need for the NHS to cut costs in line with the squeeze on public spending – from which it has been directly spared – but retained serious concerns.”

“2011 will be really tough for the NHS, possibly the toughest year it has faced. If the issues are not fully recognised, they will be dealt with poorly and patients will be the losers,” he told members.

“The NHS is going to have to get all hands to the pumps and it will need all the help it can get. We need policy-makers to fully understand the pressures, to act to mitigate the risks and to persuade those involved that we are on the right course.”

“The mechanics of who does what to whom and who overseas it is done correctly will be central to making the new system work. It needs to be crystal clear, but it remains a grey area and is therefore one of the biggest risks to the reforms working.”

“Parliament will also have to grapple with the issues of whether the reforms are powerful enough to achieve their goals.”

“However, it is the transition that is causing greatest anxiety to the NHS and we have to get there first. That will mean avoiding hazards such as financial problems and failings in patient care.”

Shadow health secretary John Healey said, “Mr Edwards’ comments were not what people expected when David Cameron promised to protect the NHS.”

He said, “When the NHS must deal with such as tight financial squeeze, this is exactly the wrong time to force the NHS through a big internal reorganisation which could cost £3 billion when this money is needed for frontline staff and to treat patients.”

With 2011 looking as if it could be the toughest year in the NHS’s history as budget cuts and reforms continue, patient care is still paramount to the government’s electoral promise of reducing NHS costs, while protecting frontline services.  As cutbacks continue, the demand placed on healthcare professionals is only to increase. MPP Locums will continue to provide first class service to the NHS. 

At MPP Locums, we ensure that all our locum doctors, consultants and specialist registrar personnel are vigorously checked before being placed in key roles. We provide quality staff to our clients and are regulated by the Care Quality Commission and the NHS Buying Solutions. MPP Locums is an approved supplier of locum jobs to the NHS under the National Locum contract starting 1st July 2008 for the next three years.

If you are seeking NHS doctor jobs, special registrar jobs, SHO jobs or medical jobs, contact our registration team by telephone or register on line and be part of the largest and fastest growing specialist medical recruitment agency in the UK.