NHS reforms ‘designed to improve patient care’

Following a report from the National Audit Office that there has been a lowering of the level of NHS care administered in GP’s surgeries, the NHS Alliance has re-iterated that the reason for reforms to the NHS is to improve the standard of patient care.

The National Audit Office report found that a number of GP’s surgeries had not implemented the systems of clinical governance introduced elsewhere in the NHS.

“NHS reforms are about delivering a better quality of care to patients within the resources the NHS has got,” a spokesperson for the NHS Alliance said.

“That means some changes into how care is delivered and clearly some people are uncomfortable with change,” he added.

The NHS Alliance noted that GPs spend public money raised through taxation and feels it is fair they be held to the same level of accountability faced by public servants in other spheres.

Additionally, while agreeing with much of the report, the alliance expressed surprise that the office did not investigate alternative healthcare providers offering out-of-hour services.

The National Audit Officer, headed by comptroller and auditor general Sir John Bourn, is an independent body that examines public spending on behalf of parliament.