Darzi to switch focus from GPs to consultants

Healthcare Republic | 30 June 2009

Health minister Lord Darzi has signalled that hospital consultants will be the focus of the next phase of his reforms of the NHS.

Lord Darzi said the 115 new ‘Darzi centres’ opened so far had ‘revolutionised’ GP access but the DoH has no plans to increase the number of practices open from 8am until 8pm and offering walk-in facilities.

It is now up to PCTs to decide if more needs to be done to improve access rather than the DoH, said Lord Darzi.

Under his latest plans, hospital consultants will be made accountable for budgets in an attempt to drive up efficiency in acute trusts.

The health minister has launched a report into the progress made since his review of the NHS, High Quality Care for All, was published a year ago.

‘There are three areas that I felt we can really push more from, for example clinicians in hospitals having control of their budgets.

‘It’s people like me and my colleagues who incur the biggest cost to the health service. How can we be more in control of those budgets but also be accountable for those budgets?’, Lord Darzi asked.

tom.ireland@haymarket.com