Atacama: Hope or illusion?©2015 Am Ang Zhang
Hard on the heels of the announcement of the devolution of NHS powers in Greater Manchester comes news of the first wave of 29 “vanguard” sites for the new care models programme, heralded last October by Simon Stevens’ Five-Year Forward View for the NHS. These frontrunner sites are meant to lead the way for better integration of health and social care.
There are three types of model: MCPs (multi-specialty community providers), concerned with moving specialist care out of hospitals and into the community; PACs (primary and acute care system), with single organisations providing hospital, GP and community services; and enhanced health in care homes, with no apparent acronym as yet, but let’s call it HICH. These models are meant to offer more joined-up care, health and rehabilitation services. Some 5 million people could benefit from the first wave of transformation.
As Stevens noted in his forward view, there is considerable consensus about what needs to change to improve care and health: “The traditional divide between primary care, community services and hospitals – largely unaltered since the birth of the NHS – is increasingly a barrier to the personalised and coordinated health services patients need.”
Roy Lilley on Tarzan (Aka Simon Stevens):
DIY cardiothoracic bypass surgery
on the kitchen table
The Tories
have left the NHS out of the Cameron 6 priorities and are promising to make a down-payment on Tarzan's
5YFV and ring-fence the Service.
It's the same as the Coalition are doing now.
Meaning; under 1% per annum more cash, against 4% growth in demand. Do the
maths... they've hobbled the NHS and more of the same will cripple it.
The rest of
the political parties (who might hold the balance of power) are trying to
butter my parsnips; especially the Lib-Dems. They are promising the £8bn Tarzan
says he needs to make his Plan A work.
However, Plan A comes with eye watering, never achieved
before, yer-avin-a-larf, 3%
savings from efficiency, modernisation, moving hospitals into GP surgeries,
telemedicine and self-care including helpful web-based instructions for DIY
cardiothoracic bypass surgery on the kitchen table. There is no Plan
B.
Cockroach Catcher:
We need true
integration and not just excluding most of FT hospitals to treat paying private
patients from rich countries!
Being a landlord
might make more money.
May I suggest someone in politics might like to think about; 'more doctors and nurses' doesn't mean 'enough' docs and nurses. How many do we need and how much? Does anyone know?
Locum and agency bills are melting the NHS' credit card. Oh and Social Services have neither the staff nor the money to keep people out of hospital nor get them home safely. The Better Care Fund robs Doctor Peter to pay Social Worker Paul.
Tarzan plans to sell-off £7.5bn of surplus land. A fire-sale will drive prices down, capital can't be turned into revenue and be careful what you sell, you can only do it once. Being a landlord might make more money.
But The Cockroach Catcher seem to have written about it before:
Atacama: Hope or illusion?©2015 Am Ang Zhang
Hard on the heels of the announcement of the devolution of NHS powers in Greater Manchester comes news of the first wave of 29 “vanguard” sites for the new care models programme, heralded last October by Simon Stevens’ Five-Year Forward View for the NHS. These frontrunner sites are meant to lead the way for better integration of health and social care.
There are three types of model: MCPs (multi-specialty community providers), concerned with moving specialist care out of hospitals and into the community; PACs (primary and acute care system), with single organisations providing hospital, GP and community services; and enhanced health in care homes, with no apparent acronym as yet, but let’s call it HICH. These models are meant to offer more joined-up care, health and rehabilitation services. Some 5 million people could benefit from the first wave of transformation.
As Stevens noted in his forward view, there is considerable consensus about what needs to change to improve care and health: “The traditional divide between primary care, community services and hospitals – largely unaltered since the birth of the NHS – is increasingly a barrier to the personalised and coordinated health services patients need.”
Roy Lilley on Tarzan (Aka Simon Stevens):
DIY cardiothoracic bypass surgery
on the kitchen table
The Tories
have left the NHS out of the Cameron 6 priorities and are promising to make a down-payment on Tarzan's
5YFV and ring-fence the Service.
It's the same as the Coalition are doing now.
Meaning; under 1% per annum more cash, against 4% growth in demand. Do the
maths... they've hobbled the NHS and more of the same will cripple it.
The rest of
the political parties (who might hold the balance of power) are trying to
butter my parsnips; especially the Lib-Dems. They are promising the £8bn Tarzan
says he needs to make his Plan A work.
However, Plan A comes with eye watering, never achieved
before, yer-avin-a-larf, 3%
savings from efficiency, modernisation, moving hospitals into GP surgeries,
telemedicine and self-care including helpful web-based instructions for DIY
cardiothoracic bypass surgery on the kitchen table. There is no Plan
B.
Cockroach Catcher:
We need true
integration and not just excluding most of FT hospitals to treat paying private
patients from rich countries!
Being a landlord
might make more money.
May I suggest someone in politics might like to think about; 'more doctors and nurses' doesn't mean 'enough' docs and nurses. How many do we need and how much? Does anyone know?
Locum and agency bills are melting the NHS' credit card. Oh and Social Services have neither the staff nor the money to keep people out of hospital nor get them home safely. The Better Care Fund robs Doctor Peter to pay Social Worker Paul.
Tarzan plans to sell-off £7.5bn of surplus land. A fire-sale will drive prices down, capital can't be turned into revenue and be careful what you sell, you can only do it once. Being a landlord might make more money.
But The Cockroach Catcher seem to have written about it before:
Kaiser Permanente!
Ray of hope from California?
California©2007 Am Ang Zhang
When all the talk is about trying to emulate Kaiser Permanente in the NHS reform up and down the country, my observation is that unless there is some radical rethink, the new NHS may end up as removed from Kaiser Permanente as imaginable.
Ownership and integration has undoubtedly been the hallmark of Kaiser Permanente and many observers believe that this is the main reason for its success, not so much the offering of choice to its members. Yes, members, as Kaiser Permanente is very much a Health Club, rather than an Insurer. Also, a not so well known fact is that Kaiser doctors are not allowed to practise outside the system.
It is evident that the drive to offer so called choice in the NHS, and the ensuing cross-billing, has pushed up cost. The setting up of poor quality ISTC (Independent Sector Treatment Centres) that are hardly used is a sheer wastage of resources. When Hospital Trusts are squeezed, true choice is no longer there. Kaiser Permanente members in fact sacrifice choice for a better value health (and life style) programme.
The push for near 80% of GP commissioning is to lure the public into thinking that they are going to be better served. In fact this is a very clever way to limit health spending and at the same time leave the rationing to the primary care doctors in a very un-integrated system.
So what about the specialist doctors that we call consultants in England? Well, some are already offering their services in a private capacity to the GPs via AQPs. The NHS pay for hospital Consultants has now lagged behind that of GPs, and many consultants supplement their income by private work. Once you have had a taste of Porsche of Ferrari, are you going to go back to Nissan? A few major insurers are poised to buy up Foundation Hospitals and offer consultants a deal they cannot refuse. This will lead us further away from the Kaiser Permanente ideal of an integrated system.
The most conservative estimate is that Consultant income will increase by 300% in the new private provider dominated specialist service. Has anyone not noticed that you buy private insurance to get your Specialist treatment? The gatekeeper is still your friendly GP.
The total income for all Private Health Insurers is currently estimated at around £6.5 billion, a quarter of which goes to the Specialists.
The NHS is already funding 20 to 25% of the Private sector.
By contrast, Kaiser Permanente is in part successful by doing away with the internal market and fees for service.
I know, the abolishment of internal market and cross charges will mean job losses for the accounting department, but we may then get more nurses and other clinical staff.
The conclusion? There is an alternative: full integration via Foundation Trust Hospitals.
There is no reason why Foundation Trust Hospitals, once free of central control, cannot be responsible for training doctors (medical schools) and offer an integrated service from Primary to Secondary care. A sort of “Free” Hospital (as in “Free” School) concept.
Ownership will be by us, the people.
This will be like the old NHS, more integrated!!!
Yes, the old black is the new black.
There is no reason why Foundation Trust Hospitals, once free of central control, cannot be responsible for training doctors (medical schools) and offer an integrated service from Primary to Secondary care. A sort of “Free” Hospital (as in “Free” School) concept.
The side effect of the New NHS HSC Act with all the CCGs is that it would no longer matter if Foundation Trusts are private or not. Before long most specialists would only offer their expert services via private organisations. Why else are the Private Health Organisations hovering around!!! My reading is that the CCGs owned by Privateers will be doing what I suspected a long time ago: direct cases to their hospitals.
It is amazing how planners often overlook the most important aspect of why an organisation such as Kaiser Permanente is a success. Having looked at some of their ways of saving money in my last post, I need now look at why Kaiser Permanente is such a success. New York Times
What perhaps the NHS should not ignore is one very important but simple way to contain cost: salaries for doctors, not fees.
Do exactly what Kaiser Permanente is doing: integrate!!! Integrate primary and specialist care. Pay doctors at both levels salaries, not fees! In fact both the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic pay their doctors salaries as well as the VA and a number of other hospitals including Johns Hopkins.
It is amazing how planners often overlook the most important aspect of why an organisation such as Kaiser Permanente is a success. Having looked at some of their ways of saving money in my last post, I need now look at why Kaiser Permanente is such a success. New York Times
What perhaps the NHS should not ignore is one very important but simple way to contain cost: salaries for doctors, not fees.
The current thinking of containing cost in the NHS by limits set to CCGswill end up in many patients not getting the essential treatments they need and GPs being blamed for poor commissioning.
Foundation Trusts will be expected to balance books or make a profit. Instead of controlling unnecessary investigation and treatment Trusts would need to treat more patients. This is not the thinking behind Kaiser Permanente and is indeed the opposite to their philosophy. It may well be fine to make money from rich overseas patients, but there is a limit as to the availability of specialist time. Ultimately NHS patients will suffer.
Do exactly what Kaiser Permanente is doing: integrate!!! Integrate primary and specialist care. Pay doctors at both levels salaries, not fees! In fact both the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic pay their doctors salaries as well as the VA and a number of other hospitals including Johns Hopkins.
Perhaps it is time to repeat all the Kaiser Permanente posts:
©2011 Am Ang Zhang
Dec 22, 2010
Ownership and integration has undoubtedly been the hallmark of Kaiser Permanente and many observers believe that this is the main reason for its success, not so much the offering of choice to its members. Yes, members, as Kaiser Permanente is very much a Health Club, rather than an Insurer. Also, a not so well known fact is that Kaiser doctors are not allowed to practise outside the system.
It is evident that the drive to offer so called choice in the NHS, and the ensuing cross-billing, has pushed up cost
When Hospital Trusts are squeezed, true choice is no longer there. Kaiser Permanente members in fact sacrifice choice for a better value health (and life style) programme.
Jan 02, 2011
Look at major hospitals in England: Urgent Care Centres are set up and staffed by nurse practitioner, emergency nurse practitioners and GPs so that the charge by the Hospital Trusts (soon to be Foundation Trusts) for some people who tried to attend A & E could be avoided. It is often a time wasting exercise and many patients still need to be referred to the “real” A & E thus wasting much valuable time for the critically ill patients and provided fodder for the tabloid press. And payment still had to be made. Currently it is around £77.00 a go. But wait for this, over the New Year some of these Centres would employ off duty A & E Juniors to work there to save some money that Trusts could have charged.
This is certainly not how Kaiser Permanente would run things: all integrated and no such thing as “cross charging”. In fact the doctors are not on a fee-for-service basis but like Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic and Johns Hopkins Hospital, doctors are paid a salary.
Feb 23, 2011
Kaiser Permanente does not cover everybody and by being able to reject or remove the chronically ill the comparison with the NHS was at best meaningless and at worst ……well I do not really want to say.
So what would they do by 2014 when they can no longer reject pre-existing conditions.
Well, their founding fathers may well have ensured their ability to continue.
Kaiser Permanent is not a Health Insurer, it is in fact a Health Maintenance Organisation. I have no doubt in my mind that they will if need be just become a Health Maintenance Club with services by amongst others, integrated primary care and secondary care doctors.
Mar 02, 2011
From one of their own advisers: Prof Chris Ham
Chris Ham"May I add something briefly? The big question is not whether GP commissioners need expert advice or patient input or other sources of information. The big problem that we have had over the past 20 years, in successive attempts to apply market principles in the NHS, has been the fundamental weakness of commissioning, whether done by managers or GPs, and whether it has been fundholding or total purchasing."
“………The barriers include government policies that risk further fragmenting care rather than supporting closer integration. Particularly important in this respect are NHS Foundation Trusts based on acute hospitals only, the system of payment by results that rewards additional hospital activity, and practice based commissioning that, in the wrong hands, could accentuate instead of reduce divisions between primary and secondary care.”
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