A new report from The King’s Fund has called for fundamental changes in how health services are commissioned, paid for and regulated to deliver the vision set out in the NHS Five Year Forward View.
A new report from The King’s Fund has called for fundamental changes in how health services are commissioned, paid for and regulated to deliver the vision set out in the NHS Five Year Forward View.
The report, Implementing the NHS five year forward view: aligning policies with the plan, argues that dealing with growing financial and service pressures could crowd out the time and space needed to implement long-term changes to NHS services. It argues that delivering these changes will require leadership of the highest order, with much resting on whether the coalition of NHS bodies assembled behind the Forward View can be kept in place.
Chris Ham, chief executive of The King’s Fund and lead author of the report, said: “The NHS Five Year Forward View offers a compelling vision for how NHS services need to change but risks gathering dust on the shelf unless fundamental changes are made to the way health services are commissioned, paid for and regulated. While NHS leaders will understandably be tempted to focus on dealing with short-term pressures, the reality is that improving operational performance and implementing the changes to services outlined in the Forward View are two sides of the same coin – both must be priorities if the NHS is to confront the challenges it faces.”
