Private payments proposal dropped. . . Family health services. . .Waiting times to be eradicated. . .Management failing IT

Published: 13/12/2001, Volume III, No. 5785 Page 10

A controversial proposal for NHS hospitals to pay patients to go private has been dropped.

Brighton hospitals acute unit had urged consultants to ask patients to go private if they had valid health insurance but were being treated on the NHS. It had predicted savings of£250,000 over three years as a result.A source claimed the idea had been abandoned because consultants - who had been asked to remit their fees to their NHS departments - were against it, and 'the politicians can't stand it'.

Family health services could be provided by 'trusts' acting on behalf of GPs if proposals for a radical extension of the primary care sector prove workable.North East Thames regional health authority is exploring the possibility of setting up an umbrella body to co-ordinate provision of GP services in Essex.Such an organisation would compete with community services to provide, for example, district nursing.

All two-year waiting times will be eradicated by 1 April 1992 under a Department of Health initiative, backed by an extra£2m.But even before the announcement, three RHAs had negotiated an extension to the deadline.Only Mersey region currently has no patients waiting two years.One manager warned against 'an obsessive focus on one indicator of healthcare, likely to lead to perverse consequences'.

Exploitation of IT in the NHS has been hampered by 'a pattern of failure by general management', according to the head of the NHS Management Executive's information management group, Ray Rogers.He told managers to 'bite the bullet and get themselves up to speed'.Many were leaving IT to systems specialists, but unless they were aware of the issues themselves, nothing would happen, he said.