Are STPs based on New Labours white paper from 2006?

All STPs are based on a blueprint document titled 'the Five Year Forward View" (FYFV). But did you know the 'five year forward view' is based on an old Labour party white paper dating back to 2006? The title of the white paper? "Our Health Our Care Our Say"

In this article we'll look at the similarities and argue that if Gordon Brown had remained in office after the 2010 elections, the five year forward view may still have gone ahead.

Is it coincidence that Labour's plans in 2010 have been accelerated under the Tories?

Would Labour have gone ahead with their secret NHS plans?
New Labour had a long history of marketising the NHS and opening up NHS services to the private sector. Services such as diagnostics and elective surgery (Labour's concordat), Private Finance Initiatives (PFi) that still cripple many NHS hospitals budgets today, and will continue to do so unless something is done. So Tony Blair's NHS policies showed it's likely we would have seen something similar to STP's if Gordon Brown had remained in government.


Same Advisor: One of Tony Blair's health policy advisors was 'Simon Stevens'.

Stevens worked for over 10 years as vice president of UnitedHealth, the largest private healthcare insurer in the United States. Stevens was appointed by the Conservatives to be head of NHS England pushing through Sustainability & Transformation Plans (STPs).

Let's take a brief look at New Labour's 2006 the white paper and compare it with the FYFV..

Personal Health Budgets..

A.19 There is particular support for greater personalisation of services. Responses to Independence, Wellbeing and Choice widely welcomed extending the availability of direct payments and the introduction of individual budgets for people to stay as independent, active and in control of their own lives as their circumstances allow. There was also significant support for the wider use of self-assessment and more streamlined assessment processes, including the sharing of personal information between appropriate agencies to enable joined-up care.

Prevention, combining NHS budget with social care budget and means tested NHS services

"we provide services with an emphasis on preventing problems and ensure that social care and the NHS work on a shared agenda to help maintain the independence of individuals".
Social services are means tested resulting in patients paying for some or all of the services. Combining NHS services with social care services would result in an extension of means testing for NHS services. Effectively forcing patients to pay for services that were previously free at the point of need. See also : Helping people to look after their own health and well-being 31 and Shifting the system towards prevention.

January 2006 - Ministers unveil plan to move care away from hospitals and into community

A.21 ...an interest in new and innovative ways of providing hospital services, such as
diagnostic tests and routine surgery, in community settings*.

*A.21 decouples routine hospital services into community clinics allowing the private sector to take on more NHS workload. Exactly as stated in the FYFV

GP federations and more private sector investment in Primary care

3.11 In some places this will mean encouraging or allowing new providers, including social enterprises or commercial [private] companies, to offer services to registered patients alongside traditional general practice. *Paying to see a GP or funding a personal health plan with part -payments from the NHS.

Page 31- Alternative [private] Provider of Medical Services (APMS)

now implemented with CCGs (2013) under APMS contracts

Page 78 - virtual clinics and digital appointments

a large part of the FYFV is based on this.

Universal Credit
Yep, page 87

Interestingly, resources used when forming the white paper refer to some of the largest private healthcare insurers on the planet. For example page 162..

References:- Hospital bed utilisation in the NHS – Kaiser Permanente and the US Medicare programme: analysis of routine data. 2003

The  plot to Privatise our NHS can be seen from outer space.

The question now is who can we trust to save it?


LINKS

• Labour 2006 white paper: Our Health Our Care Our Say [PDF] 
• New head of NHS England to be Tony Blair's former health advisor