Health policy debate
4 to 15 November 2005
Introduction
In leaked internal plans, written by Sir Nigel Crisp for the Secretary of State, and published by the Health Service Journal, it is argued that reform needs to be both sustained and better explained. Sir Nigel tells the secretary of state that ‘people can be very easily confused when today’s transactional reality does not match up to the future vision’. The DH needs ‘to articulate the vision better’.
The leaked documents argue that Strategic Health Authorities should have more powerful roles in regulating the market than previously envisaged, perhaps intervening to remove PCT chief executives and insisting on contestability [go to note 1].
Contrasting with the leaked proposals revealing the ever changing direction of English reform, the Scottish Executive published its response to the Kerr report and plans for the development of care pathways and networks that have been evolving since the publication of Sir David Carters 1998 review. Those fascinated by the natural health policy experiment occurring under devolution will follow closely whether markets or networks most successfully reconfigure services.