Snapshot survey of health leaders on NHS reform

Survey results

1 March 2012

Background

• At this crucial time in the reform agenda, the Nuffield Trust conducted a ‘snapshot’ survey of health leaders to test their views and attitudes towards the Government’s NHS reforms.

• The survey was sent to health leaders and commentators spanning Whitehall, Westminster, local government, academia, the private and independent sectors and the media. All respondents either attended, or were invited to attend, the Nuffield Trust’s Health Policy Summit (29 Feb to 1 Mar 2012).

• While it is not a comprehensive, representative sample, the findings provide a useful insight into the views of a selected group of health leaders.

1 March 2012

Methodology

• The survey asked a range of questions: some to probe attitudes to the current reforms to the English NHS, while others were more wide-ranging, designed to explore attitudes to some of the bigger questions facing the NHS.

• The survey was sent to 250 health leaders. Fifty people completed the survey, representing a response rate of 20 per cent. The results are anonymous.

• The online poll was open between 3 February and 27 February 2012.

1 March 2012

Which of the following statements comes closest to reflecting your overall view of the NHS?

In general, do you think the quality of medical care that patients receive from the NHS over the past three years has improved, got worse or stayed about the same?

‘The NHS is on track to meet the challenge of generating £20 billion of efficiency savings by 2015’. How far do you agree with this statement?

‘The reforms to NHS structures and rules set out in the Health and Social Care Bill 2011 are essential to achieving the £20 billion efficiency savings by 2014’. How far do you agree with this statement?

Do you think the Health and Social Care Bill should be scrapped?

‘Commissioning by clinical commissioning groups will, in three years, result in higher-quality, more efficient health care than commissioning by primary care trusts today’. How far do you agree with this statement?

‘Commissioning by the clinical commissioning groups will, in three years, be more effective than primary care trusts today in breaking down the barriers between primary and secondary care’. How far do you agree with this statement?

‘Greater competition between providers for NHS patients will increase the sum total of quality and efficiency of NHS services’. How far do you agree with this statement?

‘Providers of NHS-funded services should have greater flexibility at a local level to compete on price’. How far do you agree with this statement?

‘Competition between clinical commissioning groups for patients should be explicitly encouraged’. How far do you agree with this statement?

‘Developing integrated care should be the NHS’ top priority over the next decade’. How far do you agree with this statement?

‘There will be more local accountability over commissioning decisions, as a result of the new clinical commissioning groups and local health and wellbeing boards, than there has been for primary care trusts’. How far do you agree with this statement?

‘Clinical commissioning group boards will be more accountable to the NHS Commissioning Board than the local populations they serve’. How far do you agree with this statement?

What motivates clinicians most in the NHS? (lower score = higher rank)

Which, if any, of the following are essential for unleashing innovation in the NHS:

‘It is inevitable, in the next five years, that a ‘benefits package’ of what is and isn’t available on the NHS will have to be defined explicitly’. How far do you agree with this statement?

‘It will become necessary to impose new charges or co-payments on NHS patients within the next five years’. How far do you agree with this statement?

1 March 2012 © Nuffield Trust

www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk

Sign-up for our newsletter www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/newsletter

Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/NuffieldTrust