24/03/2011
Lansley urges medical professionals to get behind reforms
Exclusive video interview with Doctors.net.uk
Watch the interview
here
Following the BMA’s call to have the Coalition’s NHS reforms withdrawn and rethought, the secretary of state for health has issued an impassioned plea to doctors to get behind his proposals.
In an exclusive interview for Doctors.net.uk, the UK’s largest network of doctors, Andrew Lansley answered many questions from front-line medical professionals and responded to recent polls which show that only a minority of GPs believe the reforms will improve patient care.
Andrew Lansley said: “I spent seven and a half years as shadow secretary of state for health and now as secretary of state, and I’ve met people right across the country in the health service who have said to me ‘if only they would listen to us, we know we could do it so much better’. The ‘they’ is now me, and I am listening.
“We need a real big shift of responsibility to frontline commissioners, doctors, nurses and health professionals. We need to take out tiers of management and all the philosophy that has said the things you do, you have to put in tick boxes. We have to enable people to do the job that they are very well equipped and trained to do.”
In response to recent research from Doctors.net.uk and the Nuffield Trust, which revealed that only 23 per cent of GPs believe that the proposed reforms will improve the level of care already provided to patients, the health secretary said:
“This is about giving General Practitioners and their colleagues in secondary care greater freedoms and responsibility. My experience has been that they are stepping up for it because they want to deliver better results for patients.”
Dr Tim Ringrose, medical director of Doctors.net.uk, said: “The debate about these reforms in Doctors.net.uk’s online forum has been extensive and lively. This interview provided a unique opportunity for the secretary of state to directly hear and respond to front-line doctors’ concerns about the Health and Social Care Bill”
The podcast is available
here