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Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS – the equality and diversity impacts of the new Health Agenda

Like any new piece of legislation the new Government's Health Care Agenda offers some interesting new propositions for those of us committed to creating a more equitable community.

Some of the proposals in the new health white paper - Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS - make for optimistic reading.  These include:
  • increased choice of provider
  • improved access to, and control over, information
  • strengthening patient voice
  • an increased focus on local partnerships
  • and a stated commitment that everyone, regardless of their need or background will benefit 
All are commitments that aim to deliver better quality, locally relevant services for the community.
It is also difficult to argue against reducing bureaucracy, particularly with the intension of increasing direct service delivery. Public health providers can be remarkably difficult to engage with at a whole number of levels.
However there continues to be serious concerns about whether this highly enterprise based model will focus on the needs of those people who are already marginalised from core areas of health service delivery.  The Health Minister's statement that “financially unviable hospitals may need to close” certainly raises a concern in relation to where those services are most likely to be. 
It is an unfortunate fact of life that the communities most in need of high quality health care provision are more often than not the ones who have the least resources to support them. Removing the cap on the ability of hospitals to access debt and offer services in the private market will no doubt have an impact on the range and quality of service available throughout the country.
The Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA) on the white paper invites comments by October 5th 2010. If you are interested in reading the proposals or the EqIA please visit the Department of Health website.