The Party has at last started to unveil its plans for public services. After the Grammar debacle it is refreshing to see some new policies. The main ideological thrust behind the proposed reforms seems to me to be giving people in the NHS more power to run it. The heath secretary would appoint a governing board.
This is a really positive step, as it would make sense that those delivering services would know what is needed for patients and for the benefit of staff.
However there are fatal flaws with giving too much autonomy to the people as it were. Locally run services can struggle to see a bigger health picture leading to increased disorganisation. It is important also to make sure that autonomous boards do not duplicate services. Furthermore a board that is heavily accountable will be less likely to make tough decisions.
The increased scrutiny of patient outcomes that the party is proposing makes much more sense than top down targets. Targets have increased services, but they have demoralised staff and not taken into account the quality of treatment the patient receives.
I think this is a right move for the party to focus less on a privately run autonomous NHS to state independent system. This is the future of our public services, local independence with a more benevolent centralised system, which would be there to inspect and insure quality.
