What does the Bill do?
○ Lord Darzi’s 2024 Review of the NHS in England found the NHS in a critical condition. A system too rigid and complex, over-centralised and with unclear accountability, using fragmented and outdated information systems, resulting in poor patient care and experience.
○ The 10 Year Health Plan for England sets out the Government’s vision to deliver high-quality healthcare for the public. An NHS that harnesses digital technologies, unlocks the value of health data, empowers patients and clinicians, embeds patient voice in decision-making, and gives greater power to local leaders, supported by a streamlined and accountable national centre.
The Bill will:
○ Build the Single Patient Record – by enabling the NHS to bring together patients’ health and social care records into one place to improve patient safety and experience. It will enable people to see their own health records securely on the NHS App, empowering them to make informed decisions about their own health. This will apply to those receiving maternity and frailty care by 2028, with learning from this applied to the wider rollout.
○ Abolish NHS England – by transferring NHS England’s functions into the Department of Health and Social Care or the wider system, it will reduce bureaucracy, freeing up resources to be reinvested in the frontline – and in doing so will restore democratic ministerial accountability for national decision-making.
○ Strengthen local democratic accountability in health systems – by placing new requirements for mayoral nominees to be on Integrated Care Boards (ICBs).
○ Streamline the patient safety landscape and ensure better outcomes for patients and staff by transferring the Health Services Safety and Investigations Body functions to the Care Quality Commission. It will also help bring confidence that the Government has learned from previous experiences by extending the time limit for the Care Quality Commission to bring legal action against a provider.
○ Embed patient voice in national decision-making by transferring the functions of Healthwatch England to the Department of Health and Social Care, and developing a new Patient Experience Directorate in the department to make the public’s voice more directly involved in the formulation of policy.
○ Support ICBs to become strategic commissioners by transferring responsibilities for all but the most specialised commissioning functions to ICBs, including primary care, dentistry, ophthalmology and pharmacy.
○ Give ICBs the flexibility in how to manage their local systems by refining the membership of their boards. The Bill will also streamline the planning process to ensure there are ICB plans at neighbourhood and strategic level, eliminating the requirement on a local area to have an Integrated Care Partnership and allowing for greater flexibility.
○ Empower providers through Foundation Trust reform, giving them more flexibility to design and deliver healthcare around local needs by removing the requirement for a Council of Governors. The power to deauthorise Foundation Trusts as a last resort option will also return to Ministers.
○ Ensure the voices of patients, service users and local people feed directly into the services they receive, by transferring the functions of Local Healthwatch to where local decisions are made. The functions relating to healthcare will transfer into ICBs, while the functions relating to social care move to local authorities. Putting patients at the heart of care means devolving decisions to a local level, so those who truly understand the needs of their communities are trusted to shape and integrate services more effectively.
