Please see a comment from Professor David Kerr on this morning’s BBC story revealing how NHS leaders are discussing abandoning the founding principles of the service.
Professor Kerr was the author of “A National Framework for Service Change in the NHS”, published in 2005, for the Labour-Liberal Democrat Scottish Executive.
It recommended far-reaching reforms to hospitals and working practices, saying patients should travel for specialist treatment and backed the creation of a new network of community hospitals.
Prof Kerr, a cancer specialist at Oxford University, said:
“The drastic measures being discussed in private by health board leaders in Scotland show the depth of the crisis and lack of leadership facing the NHS in Scotland. Fundamental reform of the NHS has been ducked over the last decade in favour of sticking plaster solutions and this is what happens as a consequence.”
“The Scottish Government must front up to the challenges we face with urgency. The same problems facing NHS Scotland – how do we ensure better value healthcare – are also faced across the UK. We need to collaborate across the UK in order to come up with rational solutions rather than undermining the founding principles of the NHS if we are to save it from collapse. ”
