RCP president, Professor Jane Dacre, today commented on the Queen’s Speech and announcements from the Prime Minister, David Cameron, on health:
The RCP welcomes both the commitment for the additional £8 billion a year by 2020 for the NHS and to provide a 7 day service for patients. In order to make the 7 day service a reality, we will need strong clinical leadership and involvement in redesigning services around the patient, as envisioned in our Future Hospital Programme, in addition to the extra resources. This includes earlier access to specialist opinion within the hospital, and specialist care reaching out into the community to provide seamless services across primary, secondary and community care, as reflected in NHS England’s Five Year Forward View.
We also welcome the lack of wholesale top-down reorganisation of the NHS – we need a period of stability to embed these necessary changes to improve patient care.
For more information, please contact Morgan Evans, RCP communications and new media adviser, on 020 3075 1468 / 0779 508 8253, or email Morgan.Evans@rcplondon.ac.uk
- In the RCP’s five-point plan for the next government Future Hospital: more than a building, launched last September, we recommended:
- Remove the financial and structural barriers to joined-up care for patients
- Invest now to deliver good care in the future
- Prioritise what works in the NHS and improve what doesn’t
- Promote public health through evidence-based legislation
- Adopt the Future Hospital model as a template for service redesign
- Press statement on five point plan.
- Full version RCP’s five point plan for next government.