UK news

UK Government shakes up NHS

The UK government has announced radical changes to the NHS in a recently published White Paper. About £80billion will be distributed to GPs in a move that will see 150 strategic health authorities and primary care trusts scrapped.

At present, funds are given by the Government to primary care trusts, which pay for patients from their area to be treated in hospital. Under the news plans, GPs would receive the money instead and pay the hospitals directly.

 The recently formed Coalition Government hopes the new system will be less bureaucratic and give doctors and patients more control over treatment.

The acting chief executive of the NHS Confederation, Nigel Edwards, warned  that the changes will be difficult to implement: "In transition to this new system there are some quite significant risks," he said.

"Obviously it is going to take time to implement this and the PCTs at the moment are the people who keep the lid on the performance and financial management of the system."

 Commentators are calling the changes “the most revolutionary in the NHS since 1948”.

Source Daily Telegraph