The Health Foundation's response to Liberating the NHS: Greater Choice and Control

Date: January 2011

Download:

• The Health Foundation's response to 'Liberating the NHS: Greater Choice and Control'
• Appendix 1: Examples of Self Management Support Tools used in Co-creating Health
• Appendix 2: Decision grid in development by Professor Glyn Elwyn and team
• Appendix 3: Ottowa Personal Decision Guide
• Appendix 4: Choosing What's Best for You – a decision aid

Background

The Government's White Paper, Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS sets out proposals which envisage a presumption of greater choice and control over care and treatment, choice of treatment and healthcare provider becoming the reality in the vast majority of NHS-funded services by no later than 2013/14. These proposals are explained in more detail in the consultation paper Liberating the NHS: Greater choice and control.

The Health Foundation has invested £12.6 million since 2007 in large-scale improvement programmes demonstrating real improvements in practice and outcomes through innovative approaches to strengthen patient choice and control within the NHS.

Using this learning we have focused our response upon the Government’s proposals around greater choice and control and shared healthcare decisions.

The Health Foundation response

The Health Foundation believes there are a number of steps the Department of Health can take to create a system and culture that enables patients to have control and make effective choices. These are:

• communicating and engaging at national level
• aligning incentives and systems
• leveraging new local systems and architectures
• building knowledge.

As work to design the staffing arrangements and structure for the NHS Commissioning Board proceeds in the next few months, it is vital that sufficient resource and attention is devoted to the leadership task of driving these changes.