Could local integration of health and social care finally overcome the pull to the centre?

摘要

There are several advantages of Bevan’s design, such as progressive funding through taxation and equity of access regardless of income, that we must not lose sight of as we celebrate the NHS’s (National Health Service) 70th birthday. However, there remain historical fault-lines dividing health and social care. The challenge is how to preserve equity if a more radical reform were implemented to fully integrate both the funding and delivery of health and social care. Funding from national taxation with defined entitlements could preserve both equity in funding and geographical equity. This does not solve the issue of the pull to the centre, which has been a feature of the NHS throughout its history, according to Klein. This will require a fundamental shift in the use of data. Data must be wrenched from the hands of the regulators and put back in the hands of those who generate them for the purposes of improvement.