NHS White Paper to set out new 'results-driven' framework

Ministers will set out a new results-driven framework for the NHS today, which they claim could save thousands of lives a year.

Andrew Lansley will say that Labour's top-down targets prevented health professionals in the UK reaching the levels of success of their European counterparts.

While investment has been brought into line with Europe under the previous government, the number of lives saved has not, the Health Secretary says.

Launching a health White Paper, he will claim that 20,000 deaths from cancer and strokes could be avoided each year by making the NHS more accountable against "outcomes" such as survival rates.

"Over nine years ago, Tony Blair committed the Government to matching European levels of health spending. Today, that pledge has been delivered," he will say.

"But do the results for patients match the increase in spending?

"That is what the previous government's regime of top-down process targets and central bureaucratic control of the NHS was supposed to ensure.

"However, many of our health outcomes - including stroke and cancer survival rates - lag behind our European counterparts.

"We will get rid of the top-down process targets which get in the way, improving patient care.

"Only by focusing on results for patients will survival rates improve to the level that they should be."

The White Paper will also include plans to scrap the Food Standards Agency, it was reported today.

According to The Guardian, Mr Lansley will hand it regulatory responsibilities to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Its public health remit, and role in nutrition and diet advice will be taken over by the Department of Health.

Ahead of the White Paper, Mr Lansley said yesterday he would cut £1 billion from NHS bureaucracy and use it to improve frontline services.

As part of the shake-up, GPs will be given a far greater role in commissioning services for their patients. Patients would be given more choice and control of their care.

But shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said the plans made him "want to weep".

"What you have got about to happen with this Tory White Paper is all of this painstaking work to put that complicated jigsaw into place of a health service that really is an outstanding health service, Mr Lansley is about to pick up that jigsaw and throw it all up in the air," he said.

But Mr Lansley told BBC 1's Andrew Marr Show that bureaucracy in the National Health Service had doubled in seven years.

"People in the NHS they know that there is this waste of bureaucracy and the target culture," he said.

"Saving a billion pounds is a lot of money. Saving a billion pounds and getting it into the front line really matters."

He said giving the changes would give patients greater freedom without choices being taken away by "unaccountable bureaucracy".

Mr Lansley said: "The principles are very straightforward: firstly, patients should exercise more control over their healthcare. Decisions should only be made about us, with us and no decisions about us, without us.

"The second principle is the people we trust, we trust the doctors and nurses, GPs, hospital consultants, hospital nurses, we trust them in matters of life and death. Shouldn't we actually expect that at the same time they have responsibility for making decisions about our care?

"The third thing is let's get rid of this tick box target culture and the bureaucracy that goes with it, let's focus on the outcomes."

The Health Secretary indicated that private health providers would have a role to play in providing NHS services.

"We are going to make it clear that independent sector providers can offer services to the NHS if they meet the high quality care we are looking for and they can do it within NHS prices," he said.

The chief executive of health thinktank the King's Fund, Professor Chris Ham, told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "GPs know their patients and their needs very well. They are therefore well-positioned to take decisions on the use of resources and improve patient care and patient outcomes.

"The risk, though, is that not all GPs have the motivation to do so. Many don't have the skills either.

"To implement this across the whole of England without some degree of testing and piloting could be a risky thing for the Government to do."

On a visit to a hospital in central London, David Cameron insisted health service reforms could save another 10,000 lives every year.

The Prime Minister explained that the NHS remained his "number one priority", and said the Government aimed to cut bureaucracy by "almost half" in the next four years.

"The NHS is great but it could be even better," he said.

Outlining the Government's objectives, he added: "It's about getting rid of bureaucracy, putting power in the hands of the patients and GPs and cutting the costs of our bureaucracy by almost half over the next four years - and making sure that money goes into doctors and nurses and helping patients."

Speaking at The Royal Marsden Hospital, in South Kensington, where he met nurses and spoke to medical staff, Mr Cameron added: "If you get rid of the bureaucracy that's causing so much paper work and so much time wasting, if you get rid of that bureaucracy and put the power in the hands of the patient and their GP to choose the best services available - like here at The Royal Marsden - if we can get our cancer survival rate up to the best in Europe, we'd be saving 10,000 lives a year.

"That's how you do it. It's about trusting the doctors, trusting the patients, cutting down the bureaucracy, letting excellence flourish - that's what it's about."

During the 40-minute visit the Prime Minister, accompanied by Mr Lansley, spoke to nurses about their daily concerns.

This followed a private meeting with hospital staff including chief executive Cally Palmer and medical director Martin Gore.

He told those present: "The NHS is special, it's my number one priority - it's the Government's number one priority."

The Department of Health denied plans to scrap the Food Standards Agency, which is under review along with other arms-length Government bodies, and said its future would not form part of the White Paper.

Before the General Election, the Conservatives said they would move the FSA's responsibility for the nutritional content of food to the Department "so that public health strategies are consistent".

A DoH spokesman said: "No decision has been taken over the Food Standards Agency (FSA). All arms-length bodies will be subject to a review."