NHS trusts — modernisation

< Influencers contents | Print this page

Treatment centres

As part of the modernisation agenda, the government announced an expansion of day surgery and the introduction of treatment centres. Treatment centres will contribute to the rapid, large-scale capacity increase required in the NHS, by spearheading new ways of delivering services and increasing diversity of provision.

Some 30 treatment centres are expected to be fully operational by the end of 2004 treating more than 80,000 extra cases and rising to nearly double that figure by the end of 2005. A further 19 are in development.

Further information about the programme can be found on the Modernisation Agency website.

With overseas companies set to run many of these treatment centres, we seem to be at the beginning of a mixed healthcare economy in England. Prime Minister Tony Blair speaking to the Institute for Public Policy Research in October 2004 said that government in its third term in office would aim to ‘open up the system further’ and ‘entrench choice’, with an increase in the level of NHS spending on independent providers of diagnostic and treatment services by an extra £500m, equal to 250,000 procedures each year. The central theme of the Prime Minister's speech, which proposed changes to education, health and law and order, was that effective delivery matters more than the nature of the provider, be it public, private or voluntary. He also said:

’Just as we have moved from mass production in industry, we need to move from mass production in what the state does. At the centre of the service of the structure has to be the individual.’

Day surgery: operational guide

A day surgery operational guide, aimed at managers and clinical directors, is available. It looks at ways to improve day surgery rates, claiming that improvements in rates will help trusts to meet waiting, booking and choice targets. The NHS Plan set out a target day case rate of 75 per cent of all elective surgery — it currently stands at 68 per cent.

The day surgery operational guide will be of particular interest to those companies with an anaesthetics franchise.