Johnson unveils NHS shake-up

Hospitals and care teams will be rewarded for achieving high standards under radical plans unveiled by the Government to overhaul the NHS.Under a draft NHS constitution, launched on the 60th anniversary of the state-funded service, a report by health minister and surgeon Lord Darzi says patients will be given a new legal right to choose their GP practice and the kind of treatment they will receive.Approval of newly-launched drugs will be speeded up to reduce the so-called "postcode lottery" where patients get different treatments depending on where they live.Flanked by Gordon Brown, Health Secretary Alan Johnson told the Commons: "We must have an unwavering, unrelenting, unprecedented focus on quality."We will legislate so that all providers of NHS services will be required by law to publish 'Quality Accounts' just as they publish financial accounts."Patients can use the reports to help them choose where to go for treatment, he said, adding that hospitals and other providers will be given financial bonuses for reaching top quality standards.The Government's former national targets on areas like reducing waiting lists will be phased out, with responsibility for delivering quality care devolved to regional health authorities.However, the plans were swiftly criticised by the Tories as lacking leadership and vision. Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said: "In place of vision we get another list of initiatives - some old, some new, some borrowed, quite a lot of them blue."He accused ministers of continuing to pursue a "bureaucratic, top-down system," when the NHS needed clear vision and leadership.Mr Brown has described the review as a "bold vision" but admitted it would need serious commitment from the Government to realise.Plans to build a network of 150 supersized surgeries - or polyclinics - are already under way, offering patients access to a team of family doctors and nurses seven days a week.They are a key part of Lord Darzi's plan to widen access to healthcare but have run into stiff opposition from the British Medical Association, which fears they will spell the end of small family doctor practices.

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ITN | June 30, 2008

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