Brown Reforms And Darzi Review 'Incompatible', Warn Campaigners, UK

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 16 Jan 2008 - 2:00 PDT

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The future of the NHS could be threatened by 'muddled thinking' at the heart of government, campaigners have warned recently.

In a detailed analysis of health minister Lord Darzi's interim report on the NHS and his proposals for London, the Keep Our NHS Public campaign has identified key contradictions between the Darzi vision and Gordon Brown's recent commitment to continue the controversial market reforms begun by Tony Blair.

The Keep Our NHS Public analysis welcomes some of Darzi's proposals, which depend on an integrated healthcare system run on the basis of cooperation. But Keep Our NHS Public has identified a tension between 'Darzi the doctor' and 'Darzi the politician', with the former stressing collaboration while the latter toes the Government line on competition. The analysis argues: "An economic structure which sets health-care organisations in competition one with another cannot be reconciled with Darzi's integrationist approach."

Darzi is criticized for his weak use of evidence and the absence of any evaluation of the impact of markets on the NHS so far. Specifically, the analysis claims Darzi has given no consideration to the destabilising effects of Payment by Results and the use of PFI. Darzi's declaration that the days of the district general hospital are over, made in his work on health services in London, is based on highly contestable evidence, Keep Our NHS Public asserts.

The analysis concludes that there are "both promise and threat" in the Darzi proposals - the promise of creative enthusiasm and cooperation to achieve new levels of NHS performance, but the threat that fragmentation and commercial distortion will make this unattainable.

Professor Wendy Savage, chair of Keep Our NHS Public, said:

"Brown has rejected the wide call from NHS staff and patients for a moratorium on market reforms. We are left in the absurd situation of having a health minister producing a major report on how to improve care through better cooperation between NHS bodies, at the same time as the Government is forging ahead with outdated reforms to introduce more competition.

"The positive elements in Darzi may be used as a smokescreen to divert attention from unpopular policies which threaten to undermine local access and deepen the role of the private sector. This is highly dangerous for our health service".

The full Keep Our NHS Public statement in response to the Darzi reviews is attached.

Keep Our NHS Public