Modernisation agency to be disbanded from next year
Modernisation is now so deeply embedded in the NHS that the NHS Modernisation Agency is to be abolished next year and replaced by a much smaller central organisation.
The new organisation, to cover England, will take over in April 2005
and is expected to have only 150 staff, compared to the 760 currently
employed by the modernisation agency. The plan is to transfer the superfluous
staff and associated resources into local NHS organisations in order
to strengthen local
efforts to improve services.
Ministers have told the modernisation agency to work with primary care
trusts, NHS trusts, strategic health authorities and other stakeholders
over the coming three months to develop an implementation plan.
Beth Taylor, specialist principal pharmacist at Southwark PCT and a member
of the NHS Modernisation Board, said: “The majority of the work
will shift over the next six months to local agencies. The message for
pharmacists is to ensure that they are properly linked into local work,
such as that on chronic disease management, through their local pharmaceutical
committees and PCT pharmacy leads.”
The modernisation board is to continue to advise the Secretary of State
for Health, John Reid. |
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