Responding to yesterday's (7 June) speech, deputy chief executive of the NHS Confederation David Stout said: “We are encouraged by the Prime Minister's speech on NHS reform.

"It suggests that the Government has heard many of the views and concerns of the health service put forward to the NHS Future Forum."

Mr Cameron used his speech to say that:

• hospital doctors and nurses would be given a greater role in commissioning
• the deadline for all commissioning consortia to be legally up and running by 2013 would become more flexible.

And he indicated that the role of economic regulator Monitor would be clarified to help the interests of patients and integration of care.

Integration responsibility for Monitor

David Stout continued: "We are pleased that the Prime Minister has listened to our proposals about giving Monitor responsibility to promote the integration of services. We have stressed the importance of focusing on integration where it is what is right for patients, and encouraging competition where current providers are delivering a poor service. 

Important to address long-term challenges

“We will want to examine the detail of the Government's response to the listening exercise NHS Futue Forum to see how it will address the NHS's long-term challenges - the financial squeeze, the integration of services and addressing the current variability in the standards of NHS services."  

NHS Confederation listening exercise submission

Read our May 2011 submissions to the NHS Future Forum:

The right reform for patients - a summary

The right reform for patients - our detailed submission.