Lord Darzi today publishes his eagerly awaited Next Stage Review of NHS policy. Ostensibly it heralds the end of the top-down era; a shift away from central targets to more self-sustaining means of driving performance, based on user-empowerment, information, choice and competition - but the system will work against it. • The following measures are welcome: o Extending the right of patients to choose their GP and reaffirming the right for elective treatment. o The introduction of pilot schemes for individual budgets for patients with long-term conditions. o The pledge to publish extensive data on outcomes – including those self-reported by patients (PROMS) – and to link payment to this. o ‘Pension passports’ to encourage the potential for social enterprise to be realised. This as an area of almost wholly untapped potential...
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