Hunt plans ‘Ofsted-style’ ratings for NHS patient healthcare

The Health Secretary maintains that ratings will help to make patient-power a reality from next June onwards. The ranking system aims to drive improvement by publicly revealing those commissioning groups (CCGs) responsible for health services operating below the expected standard.

Further plans are being processed to provide more options for patients who are concerned about the standard of their local cancer or diabetes services, the Department of Health (DoH) has said. NHS England is aiming to provide a greater choice of better healthcare to those in maternity and end-of-life care.

Hunt is also preparing measures which he hopes will reduce bureaucracy and generate more available GP time to care for patients. The DoH claims the changes will accommodate 15 million more appointments.

The measures include putting a stop to hospitals needlessly referring patients back to GPs after treatments, making surgeries paperless by 2018 and disposing of fax machines that are still in use in hospitals and GP practices. Hunt has claimed that estimates show these measures will save GPs two hours per week to spend on consultations.

He said: “We’ve made progress in creating a stronger partnership between doctor and patient, but we still put too many obstacles in the way of doctors and nurses wanting to do the right thing.

“By being more transparent than ever before about crucial services and freeing up more time for GPs to care, we really can make NHS patients the most powerful in the world.”

The CCG rankings are set to be published on the My NHS website which already displays performance data about NHS trusts and consultants. CCGs will be assessed on the basis of whether they deliver what it has promised to local people. The ratings of each specialised area will be overseen by experts such as the chief executive of Cancer Research UK, Harpal Kumar, and the government’s mental health taskforce chairman, Paul Farmer.

Dr Steve Kell, the co-chair of NHS Clinical Commissioners and chair of NHS Bassetlaw CCG, approved of Hunt’s move towards greater transparency. He said: “We agree that patients and local people should have more information about those who are accountable for buying local healthcare services. Bringing in expert moderation as part of the overall process should provide further reassurance to the public and patients.”

However, Kell also counselled that given the complexity of each CCG’s work, the ratings scheme might be improved by providing more detailed information on their performance rather than a single score.

The British Medical Association said the cuts in bureaucracy for GPs were a step in the right direction, but Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the chair of the union’s GP committee, said he did not believe Ofsted-style ratings for CCGs would improve patient care.

He said: “An estimated 4.5 per cent of all GP consultations each year are spent rearranging hospital appointments.

“This is a scandalous situation which is denying ill patients access to GP services, and comes at a time when GP practices are struggling to deliver enough consultations to their patients because of the unprecedented strain from rising patient demand, falling resources and staff shortages.”

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