Doctors urged to ‘make voices heard’ in NHS reform

Doctors must be involved in NHS reforms in order for them to work efficiently, the chairman of the British Medical Association (BMA) said.

Speaking at the BMA’s annual representative meeting in Manchester, Chairman James Johnston said that reforms could work well if properly planned, but warned that they could work against patients’ interests, unless independent and NHS providers competed “on a level playing field” and provision was properly integrated.

Mr Johnston, who focused his attention on treatment centres, said: “Treatment centres are here and probably here to stay, given the cross party consensus on diversity of provision. We should take pride in the fact that NHS, not treatment centres, will continue to pick up the most complex and difficult cases. It is what we do best. But if we are going to have a multi-provider NHS then competition must be fair and the playing field levelled out – no more sweetheart deals that disadvantage NHS hospitals and leave patients, primary care trusts and GPs with no choice but to refer their patients to the treatment centre.”

Mr Johnson also said that the government’s ‘Choose and Book’ electronic booking system for hospital appointments was another area that needed professional input. Mr Johnston said: “It has been a fiasco so far, because people who do not work with doctors or patients have devised a system which does not begin to understand the basis on which GPs refer and hospitals organise clinics.

“This is just a mini example of the much bigger mess that could be coming our way, if the new systems are not planned with the involvement of the nurses and doctors who deliver the services to patients.”

Mr Johnston also said that cleaner hospitals had to be a priority, citing a recent BMA poll, which showed placed cleaner hospitals at the top of the general public’s ‘wish list’ for NHS investment. Mr Johnson said: “How have we got to a stage when, in a 21st century health service, resourced as never before, patients are frightened to go into hospital – not because of worries about the procedures, but because they are terrified they will catch a life threatening infection? We have to help change that.”

Mr Johnston said: “My message to the government is simple and clear. Work with us and your reforms will have a much greater degree of acceptance – and they might just work. Without us they cannot work.”

Mr Johnston also criticised developed countries for taking skilled health professionals away from some of the world’s poorest countries. He called for this “rape of the poorest countries” to stop.

Mr Johnston stressed that he was not talking of closing doors to overseas colleagues because of the importance of international exchange and collaboration. However, he warned: “It is completely pointless for the UK to give USD 300 million in aid to Africa if we then systematically rob them of their most precious resource – intellectual capital and the practical ability to prevent and treat disease.”

(KMcA/SP)