Following the announcement of health secretary Andrew Lansley’s five priorities for the DH, the SoR has pledged to keep radiography high on the new political agenda.
The priorities sit alongside the white paper proposals to reduce running and management costs right across the NHS, and to improve quality of care while also making the NHS more efficient and productive. They are:
1. A patient-led NHS – ensuring it responds to people’s needs and their wishes when it comes to managing their own care.
2. Shifting focus and resources towards better health outcomes – targets that have no clinical justification will be removed and healthcare professionals will be given control over the running of day-to-day services, with a focus on outcomes for patients.
3. Empowering professionals throughout the NHS – giving them more power and responsibilities, replacing the top-down approach from central government.
4. Improving our public health services – the NHS will have to work with a range of partners focusing strongly on improving people’s health through preventative measures.
5. Reforming long-term care – improving accessibility of, and options for, long-term social care by focusing on prevention, personalisation and partnership delivery.
SoR chief executive, Richard Evans commented: “It is hard to disagree with any of the ideals outlined by the health secretary and there is no doubt that radiographers and other AHPs will play a key role in delivering reforms in most of these areas.
“However, we do have concerns that the progress made by the previous government in recognising the contributions of all healthcare professionals – not just medical staff – will be reversed under the new administration.”
New opportunities
And although there are likely to be new opportunities for the profession, these are difficult to predict as the methods for delivering the white paper proposals remain undecided.
“We know that there are potentially massive changes ahead and we will have to work hard to establish a relationship with the new system, and to ensure that radiographers are included in that ‘empowering professionals’ group,” said Richard.
“Our goals of striving towards better patient care and high quality services remain unchanged, but we now have to put extra focus on maintaining our profile and making sure that radiographers do not disappear from view.”
Click here to download the June AHP Bulletin which features, on page 3, chief health professions officer Karen Middleton's views on how AHPs can contribute to the five priorities.
