Over to you
Next week the Department of Health will write to patients reminding them that the new NHS is more patient centred, outcomes focused and transformational than ever before and that patients and the public are, in a very real sense, at the heart of things. NHS Networks has obtained a copy of the letter, which is reproduced here in full.
Dear Citizen-patient
As you know, you are now in charge of the NHS. This is partly because the people who used to run it weren’t up to the job but, more importantly, because we think the NHS is too important to be left to politicians, civil servants or managers.
You may feel you lack the clinical and managerial expertise to take on a public service with a budget in excess of £100bn a year. Don’t worry, we’ve thought of that. You will be working in partnership with your GP, someone who knows all about medical matters and running their own business, admittedly on a slightly smaller scale.
The new arrangements, which took effect earlier this month, mean that you will be making all the important decisions that affect your care. You and your GP will be able to decide exactly how the NHS budget is spent and where. You will have the power to close underperforming hospitals, commission new services, redesign care pathways and hold local providers to account – all of which you’ve told us you can’t wait to do.
You can find everything you need to run the NHS by following the links at the end of this letter. They give you access to lots of regulations, guidance, directions, policies, procedures, contractual frameworks, procurement rules, commissioning guides, toolkits, clinical guidelines, spend and outcomes data and more. Don’t worry if it all seems a bit daunting at first – if you follow the instructions carefully, you’ll soon get the hang of it.
Of course not everyone will have the time to get involved on a day to day basis. If your GP is in the driving seat, think of yourself as in the passenger seat telling him where to go or in the back of the car quietly watching a DVD or listening to music on your iPod. It’s up to you.
But whatever your level of participation in running the NHS, we know you will want to be involved in your own care. “No decision about me without me” is our way of saying that nobody knows more about heart disease, diabetes or rare tropical diseases than you. So if you think that the digoxin is interfering with your renal functions or the amlodipine is giving you headaches and causing your ankles to swell up, make sure you let your doctor know. Because she will be busy getting to grips with funding flows or renegotiating the contract for outpatient dermatology services with the local hospital, she may not have noticed.
The best thing you can do to help the NHS is not get ill or injured in the first place. Looking after yourself, eating the right food, cutting out alcohol and cigarettes, giving up dangerous sports and taking lots of long walks are just some of the ways you can save yourself and the NHS money.
If you must use the NHS, please do so in moderation and remember that by making just one less trip to A&E or thinking twice before asking for expensive cancer drugs you will be saving resources that may be put to better use somewhere else. Reorganising the NHS for your benefit has already cost upwards of £1.5bn. Inevitably that has meant cutting back in less essential frontline areas, but you can do your bit too.
You kept saying it was your NHS. Well now it is. Over to you.
