Right to
Request Goes Live
Over the last 12-months there has been a sustained commitment from the Department of Health (DH) to allow patients to have more say over their care, and to allow
NHS staff to tailor their patient care. Crucially this has resulted in the DH affording
NHS staff the opportunity to set up, or become actively involved with third sector
organisations, or “Social Enterprises”, which provide health services in the healthcare
sector. The NHS Plan for 2009 offers a clear signpost that PCT provider arms should
be looking at social enterprises as a possible solution to their future governance
structure.
The ‘right to request’ affords patients a more catered form of care by allowing
NHS staff who understand their needs to provide more innovative solutions when dealing
with the patient’s care because it allows them to look outside their particular
PCT.
The ‘right to request’ goes as far as entitling care staff to put a business case to their PCT board to set up an independent social enterprise in the health care
field they feel would most benefit patients in the community. If approved, the PCT
will then support the development of the social enterprise and award it a contract
to provide services.
This commitment is underpinned by:
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The ability for NHS staff who are transferred to social enterprises, with the appropriate
legal form, to retain their membership of the NHS Pension Scheme while they work
on NHS funded services. More information about this is in Annex A. |
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The commitment to receive professional advice and guidance. |
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The offer of an uncontested contract. |
Under these proposals PCTs contracting with new social enterprises will aim to secure
service quality and value for money, while also aiming to build their sustainability
and ensuring their long-term certainty.
There are a number of ways that this could be achieved including:
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The offer of uncontested contracts for up to three years, after which they would
be tendered openly (subject to certain safeguards) in line with the growing contestability
of community health services. |
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Longer five year overall contracts with a phased approach to tendering specific
services. |
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Or, for certain services, particularly those where patient choice is being introduced
for long-term conditions, PCTs may instead wish to consider awarding social enterprises
‘Any Accredited Willing Provider’ status. Under this social enterprises would provide
services for an indefinite period as long as they met agreed standards and price.
They would compete with other such accredited providers on the basis of the quality
of their services. |
Lord Darzi’s report “High Quality Care for All: NHS Next Stage Review Final Report”
takes the notion of more patient control further, and discusses ways to allow for
a more personalised service which caters to each individual’s needs. The report
discusses new measures which are to be introduced to allow this, including:
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Furnishing the Coalition for Better Health with a set of new voluntary agreements
– these will be made between the Government, Private and third sector organisations
and will be in relation to actions to improve health outcomes, for example in relation
to tackling obesity. |
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Introducing a new right to choice in the first NHS Constitution - the draft NHS
Constitution includes rights for the patient to choose both treatment and providers,
and to allow access to information on quality, so that where relevant patients can
make informed decisions. |
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Pilot personal health budgets – individuals and families will be given greater control
over their care, with clear safeguards. Direct payments will also be piloted where
this makes most sense for particular patients in certain circumstances. |
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Placing new emphasis on enabling NHS staff to lead and manage the organisation in
which they work – the DH will re-invigorate practice-based commissioning by GP-led
organisations, including providing more integrated services for patients by piloting
new integrated care organisations from across the healthcare sector, depending on
local needs. |
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Implementing a wide ranging programme to support the development of successful community
health services – for example, as mentioned, where PCTs and staff choose to set
up a social enterprise organisation, transferred staff can continue to benefit from
the NHS Pension Scheme while they work wholly on NHS funded work. |
For more information on the ‘right to request’, Social Enterprises or any of the
issues raised above, please contact Pav Jawanda at TPP Law on 020 7620 0888 or via
email at pav@tpplaw.co.uk.
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For More Information Contact:
Pav Jawanda
TPP Law Limited
53 Great Suffolk Street
London SE1 ODB
t 020 7620 0888
f 020 7620 0778
e info@tpplaw.co.uk
Email:
Pav
For a full printable version
of this article please
click here
To view the right to request guidance please
click here
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