Giles Newman
The government's new coalition agreement lays out plans to strengthen the role of the Care Quality Commission and that of Monitor. This is a step in the right direction to ensuring that an effective and robust form of quality inspection and regulation is in place.
Ultimately however, and despite the government's best intentions to prevent this, some cuts to frontline services will be inevitable and it is therefore likely that no service within the NHS will be untouched by some form of consolidation and re-design.
The overriding premise of any merger should be the creation of stable, long-term organisations that are capable of delivering sustainable clinical change that is underpinned by financial viability going forward. Solutions may need to be radical with greater partnership working between the NHS, local government and the private sector being key to success.
While the needs and objectives of NHS consolidations might be simplistic - to provide a more cost effective and efficient service - in practice there are a significant number of issues to contend. Trying to merge complex and differing demands of separate funding streams is one such problem that may result in the addition of administration costs and ultimately inefficiency.
Regardless of the pitfalls, it is important that consolidation across these varying organisations is not delayed because of the size of the agenda. Much needs to be done in a short space of time and policy needs to be both considered and radical to achieve the results that the country and the new government's mandate demand.
Giles Newman is healthcare sector partner, at consultancy Grant Thornton
