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Putting patients and health professionals in the driving seat
The health and social care bill will return to parliament today to discuss the government’s plans to modernise the NHS and to safeguard it for the future.
The bill’s core principle of modernising the NHS is to create a stronger health system:
- Where the secretary of state will continue, as now, to promote and be accountable for a comprehensive health service
- Driven by health professionals, not Whitehall and bureaucracy
- Where patients and the public are in the driving seat of their care, supported with more choice, information and control
- With greater integration of services
- With a new “duty of candour”, a contractual requirement on providers to be open and transparent in admitting mistakes
- That’s focused on prevention and tackling the causes of poor health and health inequalities.
In addition, the government has previously outlined safeguards that protect against price competition, privatisation and private companies cherry-picking profitable NHS business. More …..
