The Health and Social Care Bill will have its third reading and report stage in the House of Commons on 6 and 7 September. The RCP is calling for the following changes and clarity in the health reforms:
- Commissioning: The RCP welcomed the mandatory involvement secondary care doctors and nurses in clinical commissioning groups, but they should not have to be from outside the local area. This is impractical and would prevent valuable local knowledge from contributing to commissioning decision making.
- Competition: The emphasis must always be on quality, not competition. The legal guidance on the applicability of EU competition law that Prof Steve Field referred to while giving evidence to the Health Select Committee must be made public.
- Regulation: We welcome the commitment for CQC and Monitor to have joined up licensing processes, we would like more detail on this. The RCP want future recommendations from the current Francis Inquiry to be embedded in the regulatory procedures.
- Access to services and reconfiguration: There is a strong clinical need for acute services to be reconfigured. We welcome local clinicians being at the heart of these difficult decisions. The RCP calls for clarity from the government on how local preferences for service provision will be balanced against regional and national need and affordability.
- Education and training: the government’s revised plans to reform medical education and training have not yet been published. Proposals will require secondary legislation. Deaneries’ crucial functions, including quality assurance, must be permanently protected.
- Efficiency: the reforms must also take account of the government imposed 4% to 6.5% efficiency savings to avoid damaging the service patients receive.
Download the RCP’s latest parliamentary briefing
For further information, please contact Lisa Cunningham, Public Affairs Manager, on +44 (0)20 3075 1468 / 07990 745610, or email Lisa.cunningham@rcplondon.ac.uk