A new survey commissioned by The King’s Fund with Doctors.net.uk (DNUK) has revealed significant scepticism among doctors about the Government’s proposed health reforms.
Less than 1 in 4 doctors believe that the Government’s proposed reforms will improve patient care and just over 1 in 5 doctors believe that the NHS will be able to maintain its focus on improving efficiency while implementing the proposed reforms. Furthermore, only around a quarter agree that giving responsibility for public health to local authorities will make it easier to tackle major health issues, with nearly half disagreeing with this. More positively for the Government, over 60% of GPs believe there are GPs in their area with the capacity to lead new GP consortia. The King’s Fund commented that the findings highlight concerns that, with the Spending Review committing the NHS to finding up to £20 billion in efficiency savings by 2015, implementing the reforms may distract it from the urgent task of improving productivity.
