Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Health Secretary Alan Johnson today announced a review of the NHS that would advise on how to meet the challenges of delivering health care over the next decade.
The review will be led by one of the world’s leading surgeons Professor Ara Darzi, the new health Minister, and will report to the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and the Secretary of State for Health before the 60th anniversary of the NHS in July 2008.
There will be an interim assessment in autumn 2007 to inform the Comprehensive Spending Review.
This unprecedented review is an opportunity to ensure that the future of the NHS is clinically led. The review will involve patients, doctors, nurses and other practitioners, and consider how best to continue delivering improvements across the NHS.
Professor Darzi will examine how the NHS can provide better access to safer, high quality care for all, whilst delivering value for money for taxpayers. He will consider the following challenges:
– Working with NHS staff to ensure that clinical decision-making is at the heart of the future of the NHS and the pattern of service delivery
– Improving patient care, including high-quality, joined-up services for those suffering long-term or life-threatening conditions, and ensuring patients are treated with dignity in safe, clean environments
– Delivering more accessible and more convenient care integrated across primary and secondary providers, reflecting best value for money and offering services in the most appropriate settings for patients
– In time for the 60th anniversary of the NHS, establishing a vision for the next decade of the health service which is based less on central direction and more on patient control, choice and local accountability and which ensures services are responsive to patients and local communities