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NHS Confederation - NHS reforms a distraction from the big financial challenge
Mike Farrar, the Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation, said: “I am deeply concerned about the financial pressures facing the healthcare system in this country and the potential impact this will have on patients.
“The full implications of this remain poorly understood outside the NHS, partly because politicians are reluctant to stand up and explain them.
“The result is a sense of sleep walking into some serious difficulties. We fully expect a number of NHS organisations to fall into difficulties this year - and the problems will only grow unless action is taken.
"If we are to keep the NHS sustainable in the long term, we need to be honest that this will mean fundamentally reorganising they way we deliver care in the best interest of patients.
“Some local hospital services will need to close or move into larger specialist centres. We also desperately need to strengthen care provided in the community.
“This is so we can provide better care to the people who make up the vast majority patients in today’s health service: older people with various long-term conditions.
“I passionately believe that the overall impact can be positive for patients, but only if we can get ahead of the curve and take the public with us.”
Mr Farrar added:
“From the outset, we have made clear that the government’s reforms to the administrative structures of the NHS are a distraction in terms of addressing these fundamental challenges.
“We are therefore increasingly worried by the lack of clinical support for the reforms and the fact that clinical opposition to the changes has hardened in recent days.
"This is a major risk. We have always said that buy-in from healthcare professionals is the key to delivering a workable set of reforms.
“We need some pragmatism and realism, along with the politics, if we are to steer the NHS through these incredibly choppy waters.”
Notes to Editors
The NHS Confederation is the only body to bring together the full range of organisations that make up the modern NHS. We are an independent membership organisation that represents all types of providers and commissioners of NHS services in England. We also represent trusts and health care boards in Wales; and health and social service trusts and boards in Northern Ireland.
Contact Francesca Reville 020 7074 3312 or Niall Smith 020 7074 3304. For out of hours media enquiries, please call the Duty Press Officer on 07880 500726
