Behind the current healthcare headlines

August is often a quiet month from a Government perspective with few consultations, announcements or new initiatives. However, the new coalition Government in England seems to have set off at a great pace, and promises a series of specific consultations during the “coming weeks”. It remains to be seen whether these emerge in August, or in keeping with tradition, all come in a flurry in September and October.

The White Paper and consultation documents

The first White Paper on Health was published in early July1 and has been followed by the first in a series of consultation documents2 specifically on health outcomes. The framework includes a set of national outcome goals which patients and the public can use to judge the overall performance of the NHS and hold the Government to account for progress. The framework and the national outcome goals will form a combined mechanism by which the Secretary of State for Health can hold the new NHS Commissioning Board to account for the outcomes it is securing for patients. The consultation document suggests five outcome domains and seeks views on the structure and the core principles that should underpin the development of the framework, as well as the more specific outcome measures that should be used. The proposed domains are: