It is now less than six months to go before the most radical change to the NHS since its inception in 1948 and the transition has entered the final phase. The National Commissioning Board was formally established as an independent body, at arm’s length to the Government, on 1 October 2012, and its four regions and 27 local area teams (LATs) are falling into place.
It is now less than six months to go before the most radical change to the NHS since its inception in 1948 and the transition has entered the final phase. The National Commissioning Board was formally established as an independent body, at arm’s length to the Government, on 1 October 2012, and its four regions and 27 local area teams (LATs) are falling into place.
Some 212 Clinical Commissioning Groups are now proceeding through the authorisation process. The NHS Trust Development Authority is in place and together these organisations have taken management responsibility for all existing organisations from 1 October to ensure “stability and resilience” through transition and to avoid a leadership vacuum.
Twenty-three commissioning support services are being established and key people are already in post. Health and Wellbeing Boards are in shadow form and the move of Public Health to Local Authorities is taking place. The revolution in the Health Care System has begun and is unstoppable, and probably irreversible – as even Ed Milliband, Leader of the Opposition, has acknowledged.
All is changed, changed utterly," wrote William Butler Yeats. "A terrible beauty is born."
Will it be a terrible beauty for the NHS and Health in the UK, or an opportunity to be grasped?
Jeremy Hunt, will you tell us how you see the future? – the silence from the top (centre?) is deafening…
