In a recent announcement Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley warns, “The very existence of the NHS will be placed under threat unless it is reformed.”

It is understood Mr Lansley will blame “almost insatiable” public expectations as well as other factors such as an ageing population and the rise in the costs of drugs, both of which will create challenges in the future for the NHS. 

However, Mr Lansley is likely to defend his position on the NHS and will insist that he will not introduce risky competition into the NHS and that its future lies clearly in the hands of patients and healthcare professionals and not politicians. 

It represents Mr Lansley’s warning of the future state of the NHS and how he sees reform as being necessary to ensure the NHS is fit for purpose now and in the future. Despite Mr Lansley’s warning on the need to revamp the NHS, he is still struggling to convince voters, unions and opposition politicians that a reformed NHS will not lead to back-door privatisation. 

Mr Lansley’s comments come after David Cameron, who is forced to step in and “pause” the unpopular Health and Social Care Bill in order to consider changes from critics and prevent a Lords rebellion, warned that the reforms were essential to avert a £20 billion funding shortfall. 

Mr Lansley will address a King’s Fund conference on NHS leadership: “As the Prime Minister set out so clearly this week, the NHS faces some significant long-term challenges.”

“An ageing population, increasing costs of drugs and new treatments, growing, almost insatiable public expectations.”

“If we choose to ignore these pressures, if we stick with the status quo, then in the years ahead the NHS will face a genuine crisis. One that threatens its very existence.”

It is likely that his comments will prompt claims that as one of the world’s biggest employers, whose £120 billion budget accounts for almost a fifth of public spending – could be improved. However, this alone critics would argue is not a reason to scrap the existing NHS structure for the untested transfer of power to GPs and GP consortia. 

Furthermore, Mr Lansley is likely to be criticised in his claims that the health service is poor at integrating care from patients, despite the fact that his plans to reform the health service will allow private companies to provide treatment, which will fragment services even further. 

He will say: “Unfortunately, the NHS is not particularly good at integration. What it is good at is episodic care. The needs of patients are often not catered for by the strengths of the service. The result is that, far too often, care today in the NHS is fragmented.”

“Care needs to be organised not around the needs of a particular provider, but around the needs of the individual patient. To have good care, care needs to be integrated.”

In his speech to the King’s Fund conference, Mr Lansley will attempt to reassure critics of the reform that providers will compete on quality rather than cost, and that “competition is a means, not an end” in order to improve results for patients. 

He will also soften his previous criticisms of excessive bureaucracy in the NHS, saying that he realises that “high-quality managers” are essential to the service. 

He will conclude: “I don’t want the future of the NHS to be determined by me or any other politician. I want it to be determined by the millions of choices made by millions of individual patients working in partnership with their healthcare professionals.”

With the debate about the future of the NHS continuing, Mr Lansley’s latest address to critics is unlikely to pacify them. Some of the main concerns are is a future NHS run on competition going to be in the best interest of patients and patient care, will quality rather than cost be the key issue when determining who is going to provide the care patients need. Will a re-structured NHS see a shrinking in the number of people being employed by the NHS, such as less doctors and nurses, which some will argue is not in the best interest of patients. 

As the government continues to re-assure healthcare professionals and the public that unless the NHS reforms, its very existence is under threat. MPP Locums continues to work with NHS Trusts across the UK to provide first class medical personnel where the demands and shortfalls are needed. 

MPP Locums is an approved supplier of locum doctor jobs, doctor jobs to the NHS under the National Locum contract starting 1st July for the next three and we are regulated by the care Quality Commission and The NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (PASA).

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