The BBC’s Branwen Jeffrerys interviews Mr David Bennett, head of the economic regulator Monitor, about his expectation to see greater use of private healthcare and charities and the possibility that unpopular NHS services may be allowed to close.
Transcript of the BBC interview with Mr David Bennett:
Dr David Bennnett interview with BBC
“For patients, one of the fundamental things is the way they get their care. So, for example, today a lot of care is provided in hospitals. For a long while, people have been saying there is a need to move care out of hospitals and closer to home – even in the home. And so I hope one of the things people will see is that more of their care is being provided in their communities or in their homes. From a tax payer’s point of view, this is about making sure that we get the maximum possible value for money … for the very large amount of money that we spend on healthcare in this country. ”
You are being asked to level the playing field between private companies that want to have a greater opportunity to treat NHS patients and NHS hospitals. What are you going to be able to do, to do that?
“It is quite right, the private sector provider has raised a number of issues like the pensions the NHS employees get, which they see as disadvantaging them… which it does. But at the same time, there are disadvantages for the public sector, they have to provide training for people who work in the NHS; they have to treat all patients, no matter how complex their case is. So, the first thing we have to do is to really understand wheree the balance lies. And I think at the moment, noone quite knows which side is advantaged or disadvantaged. Once we have done that, then we will have various options available to us to try to level the playing field, and that is something that, no doubt, will be happening over many years.”
Are you saying very clearly that there will be no competition on price for looking after NHS patients?
“There is definitely legitimate concern that if suppliers compete on price that the risk is that quality deteriorates. Absolutely, that is not something that we want to happen. So it has to be applied very carefully. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that you can never have competition. I think over time it probably will emerge and it… will emerge in some areas, not in others. Initially, I think it will be very limited and the emergence will be slow.”
The government has been very clear in that it doesn’t want tax-payers money to be used to prop up NHS hospitals that can’t make their ends meet financially. What would happen to an NHS hospital in that situation?
“If an NHS hospital is providing a service that people don’t want to use, which the commissioners, the GP’s that buy services on behalf of patients don’t want to send their patients to, then indeed those services may find that their finances get into difficulty and they may ultimately need to close. But that is only where there are alternative services available. If there is an alternative, that is when the service will be designated as essential. It means that even if the provider gets into difficulty, we will make sure that the service is still provided.”
That opportunity for people to come in and provide healthcare and also for other services or part of services to close if they are … not successful.. that is going to be one of the real tests of this…
“It is really, and I think it is one of the things that we want to see changed, that if we see new providers emerging, new types of services emerging and, frankly, older types of services that people don’t want to use disappearing, that is a sign of success because it should represent improvement for the better for patients.”
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