Press release: Response to Audit Commission report on disability services
27 Jun 2002
This report* demonstrates the difficult trade offs that have to be made in the NHS, said the NHS Confederation, and the need for a shared agenda of top priorities that all players involved in improving the NHS are working towards.
Nigel Edwards, policy director, said "There is full recognition in the NHS that these services need major improvement, alongside a wide range of other areas, but competing must do pressures and higher priorities have meant that it has not been possible to put enough management or financial resources into this area in the relatively short time since the original study."
The Confederation supported the Audit Commission's diagnosis that little funding has reached equipment services largely due to changes elsewhere in the NHS meaning that improving these "Cinderella" services remained a low priority. Nigel Edwards said, "the funding has been spent on other high priorities such as cancer and coronary heart disease."
Nigel Edwards, policy director said, "It is a very difficult message but it will take time for improvements to be felt across the board. The NHS is starting from a low base given the legacy of under-funding over decades but improvements will be made in time. There is an ambitious agenda for first class services but as we move in that direction we face some very hard choices about the top priorities for improvement."
The Confederation said that this report demonstrates why it is necessary to more closely bring together the audit and inspection processes with performance management of the NHS - now happening partly through the establishment of Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection. Nigel Edwards said, "The NHS must be held to account for making improvements but the emphasis should be on the agreed priorities."
NHS management fully supports the view that there is a need to break out of the "vicious circle of equipment services" described by the Audit Commission, and so welcomed the recommendations which now needed to be examined and taken forward.
Ends
Notes for editors
* Fully Equipped 2002, Audit Commission, 27 June 2002 www.audit-commission.gov.uk
The NHS Confederation represents the organisations that make up the NHS. Our members include the majority of NHS trusts, primary care trusts and health authorities in England; trusts, health authorities and local health groups in Wales; trusts and NHS boards in Scotland; and health and social services trusts and boards in Northern Ireland.
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