NHS 'closed shop' on services criticised

PATIENTS are being denied potentially better and more timely treatment because of an NHS culture that demands loyalty to the family of NHS hospital providers, according to a new report.

Refusing Treatment, by independent think tank Civitas, concludes that existing NHS providers use their "muscle" and connections to keep providing services even when faster, higher quality care is on offer elsewhere.

The report, based on a one-year study into the relationships between acute trusts and their commissioners, suggests the benefits of a decentralised and innovative NHS are being denied to patients who have to wait longer for treatment and fail to access the most appropriate services.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Co-author James Gubb said: "The coalition Government has put a lot of faith in the power of the market to meet the NHS's unnerving productivity challenge.

"The problem is the coalition isn't addressing the real issues as to why the market currently isn't delivering – the overwhelming power of hospitals and the closed-shop 'we can do it alone because we're the NHS' attitude so prevalent across the organisation."

The report said the "NHS family" has successfully broken competitive, lower-cost and higher-quality alternatives, keeping the benefits of

innovation and accountability limited.

The NHS market for secondary care is yet to have its intended impact on providers and bring about the anticipated benefits on any meaningful and systematic scale, the authors said.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Lord Warner, a former Labour Health Minister, said: "As the interviews in this report reflect, too many NHS personnel are too comfortable or frightened to create the discomfort and public angst that a properly functioning market would bring."

Related topics: