Overview

A question asked by many in our industry is where will this new Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government take UK healthcare? In the government’s white paper on health sector reform in July, a number of themes are outlined: a patient-led NHS; an emphasis on clinical outcomes, rather than process targets; reductions in bureaucracy; ownership and accountability placed more in the hands of frontline staff, with the transfer of more power to health professionals; and the promotion of better public health and reform of the social care system.

There are doubters. Some suspect items of spending from, for example, education and local authority budgets might be moved into the health budget without additional funding. Others question the government’s promise to eliminate “top down reorganisations of the NHS” whilst at the same time proposing the biggest structural change for decades, with the transfer of commissioning power to GPs. Others refer to supposedly insurmountable issues such as the NHS pension scheme.

This survey summarises the changes proposed in healthcare, in particular the opportunities for involvement by business, placing them in their political and economic context.