Friday 25 November 2011

NHS shakeup in danger of harming patients, risk assessments show

The government's shakeup of the NHS has led to a decline in public confidence, "may destabilise existing services" and has raised risks to patient safety and safeguarding children to disturbing levels, the Guardian can reveal.

The risk assessments, which are publicly available, were prepared for the September board meetings of regional strategic health authorities and detail the scale of uncertainties and the chances that they will substantially affect the running of the health service for patients.

They come as the NHS published its "operating framework" in which £1.2bn will be set aside to pay for the government's reforms. Two controversial changes also come into force this year. First is that patient "choice" will be measured by an increasing "number of patients being treated at non-NHS hospitals", which critics say amounts to backdoor privatisation.

Full Article on Guardian Society

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