This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
Jeremy Hunt calls for ‘social contract between the public, health and care services’
Speaking at the Local Government Association (LGA) annual conference, the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt discussed the issues facing Britain and the NHS due to an ageing population, a budget squeeze and “rising consumer expectations”. Hunt argued that integration of health and social care will be vital to ensuring the highest standards of health and care, but also stressed that “people who use those services need to play their part too”, with personal responsibility sitting alongside system accountability.
Hunt said: “The best person to manage a long-term condition is the person who has that long term condition. The best person to prevent a long term condition developing is not the doctor - it’s you. Which is why last year, following changes to the GP contract, the number of GPs offering their patients online access to a summary of their medical record has risen from 3% to 97%. This needs to be the start of a much bigger change where everyone feels firmly in the driving seat for their own health outcomes and an area where the NHS and local government can work together.”
Discussing the role of patients in using NHS resources responsibly, Hunt added: “Part of this change in mentality needs to be more personal responsibility for use of precious public resources… There is no such thing as a free health service: everything we are proud of in the NHS is funded by taxpayers and every penny we waste costs patients more through higher taxes or reduced services.
“Yet estimates suggest that missed GP appointments cost the NHS £162 million each year and missed hospital appointments as much as £750 million a year. That is nearly £1 billion that could be used for more treatments or the latest drugs. On top of which we spend £300 million a year on wasted medicines.
“People who use our services need to know that in the end they pay the price for this waste.”
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