As the Health and Care Bill proceeds through the Committee stage, belated critiques and assessments have begun to appear flagging up serious questions over the effectiveness of the emerging system of Integrated Care Systems (ICSs).
One traditionally right wing think tank, the Centre for Policy Studies (which boasts on its website that it was “founded in 1974 by Sir Keith Joseph and Margaret Thatcher and was responsible for developing the bulk of the policy agenda that became known as Thatcherism”) has published a report questioning the evidence that “integrated care” can deliver any improvement in outcomes for patients.
Perhaps this is not such a great surprise, since the Health and Care Bill proposes to establish 42 statutory ICSs by scrapping one of the core sections (Section 75) of Andrew Lansley’s hugely controversial Health and Social Care Act, which followed in the tradition of Thatcherism by entrenching competition and a competitive market in the NHS.
Full story in The Lowdown, 2 October 2021