Speaking at the NHS Alliance conference in Bournemouth on Wednesday, Alliance chairman and Devon GP Dr Michael Dixon said redesign had 'persistently failed to materialise' in the past.
'Clinical commissioners must become demolition experts. Removing the mines, the obstacles and the red tape that prevent them securing better services and outcomes,' he told the conference.
Dr Dixon said getting the best from the NHS reforms would mean 'reigniting the altruism that lies beneath the skin of every clinician, however scarred by life's events'.
NHS Clinical Commissioners, the coalition between the NHS Alliance, National Association of Primary Care and NHS Confederation set up to support clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), would help commissioners hold a mirror up to the NHS Commissioning Board (NHSCB), Dr Dixon said.
‘Each year, we will collect appraisals from each CCG of the NHSCB and their local office. From these appraisals, we will produce a national report, which we will share with the NHSCB and then we will publish the results with proposals as to how things might be improved,’ he said.
Dr Dixon went on to call for a change of culture within the NHS, to help it cope with future financial challenges.
He said: ‘The NHS needs to become a national health system with clinical commissioners, health and wellbeing boards and those at the heart of delivery being catalysts of health on every street corner, in every supermarket, in every inner city, estate and rural village.’
‘Public health will need to get its hands dirty. Every patient and clinician will need to play his or her part in improving personal health.’
Dr Dixon said that the NHS Alliance would now turn its attention to the standard of provision of services. ‘Because excellent commissioning relies on excellent provision. These ambitious reforms will only deliver if we can successfully harness the enthusiasm and commitment of frontline clinicians and managers and the wider providers of services within primary care.’
