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Judy Viitanen has been reviewing the Tories election manifesto - ‘Invitation to Join the Government of Britain’ – and is liking what she reads!
As a specialist healthcare consultancy, PRimage is interested in the plans to strengthen the power of GPs as patients’ expert guides through the health system by putting them in charge of commissioning local health services and giving them power to hold patients’ budgets. It’s encouraging to learn that the Party will ensure that funding decisions are made on the basis of need, and commissioning decisions according to evidence-based quality standards, by creating an independent NHS board to allocate resources and provide commissioning guidelines.
We also think that it’s great that the Conservatives recognise the input of the UK’s millions of carers, who look after relatives. 
Their plans will support carers, and those they look after, by providing direct payments to help with care needs and by improving access to respite care.
The Tories five main headline commitments for health:
1. Give patients more choice
Putting patients in charge of making decisions about their care, including control of their health records; spreading the use of the NHS tariff, so funding follows patients’ choices; and, making sure good performance is rewarded by implementing a payment by results system.
2. Trust healthcare professionals
The Conservatives intend to scrap the politically-motivated targets that have no clinical justification. They will set NHS providers free to innovate by ensuring that they become autonomous Foundation Trusts. They will cut the cost of NHS administration by a third and transfer resources to support doctors and nurses on the frontline.
3. Increase access to vital drugs and services
They will stop the forced closure of A&E and maternity wards, so that people have better access to local services, and give mothers a real choice over where to have their baby, with NHS funding following their decisions. We will create local ‘maternity networks’ to ensure that mothers can safely access the right care, in the right place, at the right time.
4. Take control of your care
They will devolve control over health budgets to the lowest possible level, “For people with a chronic illness or a long-term condition, we will provide access to a single budget that combines their health and social care funding, which they can tailor to their own needs.” They will also support carers, and those they look after, by providing direct payments to help with care needs and by improving access to respite care
5. A healthier nation
The Department of Health will become a Department for Public Health so that the promotion of good health and prevention of illness get the attention they need. They will also:
· Introduce a health premium – weighting public health funding towards the poorest areas with the worst health outcomes;
· Enable welfare-to-work providers and employers to purchase services from
· Mental Health Trusts; and,
· Increase access to effective ‘talking’ therapies.
As the General Election campaign gets underway, the three main political parties have outlined their key policies and targets for health. PRimage has reviewed these - and for Judy Viitanen and the team, our vote goes to the Conservatives. We totally agree with their view that the NHS under Labour has been totally target driven. This has to change! 
Read the summary below and let us know your views.
CONSERVATIVE HEALTH POLICY
The party says that “we can’t go on with an NHS that puts targets before patients”
Specific health policies and targets
Scrapping all politically-motivated process targets
Putting more detailed NHS performance data online
Improving cancer and stroke survival rates
Enabling patients to rate hospitals and doctors
Giving anyone the power to choose any healthcare provider that meets NHS standards
Opening up the NHS to new independent and voluntary sector providers
Linking GPs’ pay to the quality of the results they deliver
LABOUR HEALTH POLICY
Labour believes the NHS is its “greatest achievement”
Specific health targets if the party is re-elected:
Working to eliminate mixed sex accommodation in hospitals
Rolling out a national programme of vascular checks for everyone aged between 40 and 74.
To prevent at least 9,500 heart attacks and strokes every year and save 2,000 lives.
Extending the ages at which adults are screened so that an additional 500,000 women will be screened for breast cancer.
2 million men and women will be screened for bowel cancer
Training 3,600 more new psychological therapists to treat people with depression and anxiety.
Reduce the numbers on sick leave and benefits.
Giving every 11 to 14-year-old hands-on cooking lessons from 2011 to help reduce childhood obesity
LIBERAL DEMOCRATS HEALTH POLICY
Specific health policies:
Giving people control over their local health services
Introducing patient contracts
Improving access to GPs around the clock
Abolishing strategic health authorities
Universal care payments for those over 65 who require personal care
Closing medical wards and sending staff home during super bug outbreaks
PRimage has been looking at the National Audit Office report - The Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework and the Retained Medicines Margin - which examines the financial impact of the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework since its inception in April 2005. http://www.nao.org.uk/publications/0910/community_pharmacy.aspx
Judy Viitanen has been mulling over the report’s two key findings, which are:
· There has been a cost saving to the NHS of around £1.8 billion over the period 2005-06 to 2008-09 by comparison with a counterfactual scenario of retaining the pre-Framework remuneration and medicines pricing arrangements. The saving has arisen principally because, under the new Framework, the reimbursement prices paid to pharmacies for a number of commonly dispensed medicines have been reduced.
· The productivity of pharmacies, with respect to core dispensing work, has also increased by 8 per cent over the four years 2005-06 to 2008-09. In 2005-06, the total volume of medicines dispensed by pharmacy contractors was 679 million items, and total payments to contractors were £1.975 billion. By 2008-09, the number of items dispensed had increased by 17 per cent, to 795 million, for an increase in total payments of 8 per cent in real terms, to £2.418 billion. In addition, pharmacies are now delivering new services, such as repeat dispensing, health promotion services and support for self care that were not available prior to the Framework.
We are interested to see that the NAO also found that since 2005, the retained margin has been exceeded by £1.1 billion. However, it is recognised by the Department of Health and the NAO that reduced expenditure on pharmacy over this period could have threatened the viability of community pharmacy. They noted that the excess margin is a product of incentives in the system encouraging pharmacy to drive down the purchasing price and due to the limited information available about the cost of pharmacy when the margin was set.
In addition to the current Cost of Service Inquiry, the NAO has made recommendations to the Department of Health, which included that it should:
· Be more timely in making adjustments to reimbursement prices for generic medicines to manage the level of retained margin. We understand that the Department’s intention is to move to a process of rolling invoice surveys, which should facilitate this. However, the Department should also use evidence from other sources, such as average ex-factory prices, to make adjustments if necessary.
· Continue to work with recognised experts in survey design and analysis to maintain and improve the invoice survey. In particular, whilst the response rate has improved considerably since the inception of the Framework, the Department should take steps to ensure high response rates continue in future.
· Present the arrangements for funding the Framework more explicitly. If the Department believes that the target level of margin is likely to be exceeded every year due to the operation of ‘regulatory lag’, this should be made clear, and the implications for expenditure on pharmacy services and medicines should be set out.
Now that the Prime Minister has announced this morning that the General Election will be held on Thursday 6 May it’s important that the electorate concentrates on the key issues facing this country – and evaluates which of the political parties has the right vision. For Judy and the PRimage team the choice is David Cameron and the Conservatives.
www.rockthevote.com – PRimage supports this campaign to get young people motivated to vote.