The new Health Secretary has this week, laid out a radical new vision for the health service which affects all areas of the NHS and healthcare. Out of all the many proposals, I’ve picked out two that I think will have the biggest impact on employers – that’s assuming NHS waiting times don’t increase again which unfortunately I think is a strong possibility. The first is the removal of the private patient revenue cap ( under 2% of revenue) currently enforced on NHS hospitals. The second is the new outline strategy on Public Health.
If the NHS is going to be allowed to freely compete with private providers then I think we will see a revision of private medical insurers preferred hospital and treatment provider lists. How big a revision will depend on pricing and quality, but it will make inroads into private providers’ market share. This will hapen at the same time as private providers look to take a greater share of the the funding budgets that will pass into the hands of GPs. It could be swings and roundabouts, but more competition should in theory mean lower treatment costs for employers.
The outline strategy on Public Health is just that – an outline with very little detail. The plan is to have a new National Public Health service set up jointly with local authorities with a ring-fenced budget. Responsibilities will cover areas such as obesity, smoking and alcohol problems as well as running vaccination and screening programmes. Regions with poor inhabitants will be given extra funding to reduce inequalities.
Local authorities are also to have responsibility for promoting integration between the NHS, social care and public health. I’m not clear as how this is going to play out, but I’m hoping it will mean greater engagement with local employers who play an underestimated role in improving public health in their communities.
Large multi sited companies will still be faced with the difficulty of co-ordinating a consistent approach to accessing public sector services for the benefit of their employees as there will be a huge variation in funding and approach depending on where they are located.
The consultation period following the government’s announcements will shed greater light on the proposals. It is vital that employers and their representative bodies make their views known, bearing in mind that the reforms will have a big impact on current employee health and wellbeing strategies.