Transformation Director at Well Up North PCN and the Northumberland Medical Alliance - views are my own, but should be the views of far more powerful people!
Thorne's law of differential focus - the NHS announcements with the least oomph are the most impactful. The latest Specialised Services delegation provides an apparent context of prevention, local choice and integrated pathways of care. But it contains a revealing sentence.........."specialised services account for a growing share of NHS expenditure and whilst this is the result of being able to treat more diseases and conditions than ever before, it creates an inexorable pressure on costs." The most ill patients and the most complex treatments. Going to be interesting to see how this works in practice given differential weighted capitated budgets that are not ring-fenced. Even if a medicine or technology remains a central pass-through, the services around it are not. The dominant message is more an instruction, not invitation, to move spec comm funding into other areas through changed LOCAL pathways. Less a freedom to vire than a necessity to meet budget. And the fallout sits not in London but in places like Bristol, Manchester, Oxford and Leeds. #nhs #nhsengland #specialisedservices #pharma #pharmaceuticalindustry #marketaccess #medtech #diagnostics #medicaldevices
Head of National Policy and Programs at Boehringer Ingelheim
1wWhat does prevention look like for a specialised condition / rare disease?