Market Forces Need To Be Put In Service Of Patients

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 22 Oct 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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NHS organisations should be the first choice for commissioners as preferred providers, says the NHS Alliance.

In a paper entitled Rebalancing the Market, which will be launched at the NHS Alliance 12th Annual Conference in Manchester, the organisation suggests two new approaches to tendering and commissioning that would improve cooperation and increase efficiencies.

The paper states that tendering for services to include private bidders should be encouraged only when there are no current providers of sufficient quality prepared to offer extended services or conventional GP services at the right price.

Dr Brian Fisher, National Public and Patient Involvement Lead, NHS Alliance, and the paper's author, said: "Too often, the result of a business model is an NHS organisation that looks for increased income, which can come at the expense of patient care. The Alliance would like to see market forces better directed to improve the service to patients."

Although working with the independent sector has its advantages, it also poses many challenges, not least to the patient who, instead of being at the centre of healthcare planning, becomes part of a tug of war between primary and secondary care.

Independent sector organisations may be more expensive and exit the market when the going gets tough. They may also decide to cut costs using short-term and/or inexperienced clinicians.

The paper also highlights that collaborative commissioning, programme budgeting and horizontal/vertical integration could be the answer to creating an environment where all partners have a common interest in improving care pathways and producing efficiencies. It says: "It may be that a cooperative approach works in some situations and not in others - there may well be a mixed set of approaches both within and between PCTs."

Source
NHS Alliance

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