Hill & Knowlton International Belgium,
118, Avenue de Cortenbergh box 8,
B-1000 Brussels
Tel. +32 2 737 9500
http://www.hillandknowlton.be
by Corinne Pluchino
Managing Consultant & Head of Health Policy & Health Public Affairs
Hill & Knowlton London
This year the National Health Service celebrates its 60th anniversary. It is also eight years since the Government published the NHS Plan* which marked the beginning of an extensive programme of reform designed to "transform the health service… around the needs of the patient." It was accompanied by unprecedented increases in funding – the NHS budget has doubled over seven years to reach £90 billion in 2007-08. The rate of increase has now been reduced, but will still be £110 billion by 2010-11.
Gordon Brown's appointment as Prime Minister has prompted considerable debate as to whether the modernisation agenda will continue in its current form. This discussion has been encouraged, at least in part, by various stakeholders that sincerely hope it does not. The reforms have been criticised as having caused unnecessary instability, undermined clinical independence and imposed too much direction from the centre. There is no doubt that the Prime Minister and Alan Johnson, the Secretary of State for Health, are sensitive to this criticism - but will it have an impact on the future direction of public policy?
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