NHS and HealthWatch - have your say

GPs will play a greater part in running the National Health Service, according to a government White Paper, while the primary care trusts which currently plan services will be abolished. Local Involvement Networks (LINks) are to become local HealthWatch from April 2012, while Healthwatch England takes forward involvement at a national level.

Equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS was published by the new government on 12 July. It sets out how the government would like the NHS to run. After consulting, the government will prepare a draft Health Bill. This will be debated and perhaps some parts will be changed by Parliament, then it will become law.

There are also several consultation papers which give more detail about particular issues, including Liberating the NHS: local democratic legitimacy in health, which covers patient and public involvement. This includes plans for turning LINks into local HealthWatch, setting up HealthWatch England as part of the Care Quality Commission, and getting rid of health overview and scrutiny.

You can read the White Paper Equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS from the Department of Health website on http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_117353. Or you can call the Department of Health on 020 7210 4850 (or textphone 020 7210 5025 Monday-Friday 8:30am-5:00pm) to find out how to get a copy.

You can get hold of consultation papers linked to the White Paper in the same way:
•   Liberating the NHS: local democratic legitimacy in health, which includes patient and public involvement;
•   Liberating the NHS: commissioning for patients;
•   Liberating the NHS: regulating healthcare providers; and
•   Transparency in outcomes - a framework for the NHS.

If you would like to find out more about what Enfield LINk is doing on responding to plans for HealthWatch, and other changes in the way involvement will be supported, please email enfieldlink@cidagroup.org or call 020 8885 1900.

You can also make your views known directly to the Department of Health. Comments should be sent by 5 October 2010, to:
NHSWhitePaper@dh.gsi.gov.uk

or: White Paper team, Room 601, Department of Health, 79 Whitehall, London SW1A 2NS.

The deadline for comments on Local democratic legitimacy and other consultation papers is 11 October 2010.

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