Senior professor asks: “Does anyone understand the NHS reforms?”
Released 18/01/2012
Professor Martin McKee highlights confusion over changes in the NHS
"Does anyone understand?"
Professor Martin McKee from the London School of Hygiene has said in a report by the BMJ that despite having 25 years’ experience researching health systems, he is still confused by the government’s ever-changing plans for the NHS.
Conflicting messages from the government about the aims of the changes have puzzled the professor and he worries that he may be asked by his students to clarify. He said: “I need to understand them first. Here lies the problem.
“The prime minister has reassured us that he will not privatise the NHS. Yet the management of one hospital has just been handed over to what is essentially a private equity consortium. ”
McKee points out that he is not alone in this view, as Malcolm Grant, the incoming chairman of the National Commissioning Board, has described the bill as “completely unintelligible”.
The professor also questions why changes are already being put into action, despite having not yet been passed into law, and concludes that his “bewilderment” may be due to his “failure to understand the insights that have been granted to wiser and more learned individuals” than himself.
See more news stories like this
Get a Free trial subscription to Practice Business