Consultants helping with NHS shake-up

GPs are enlisting the help of management consultants to implement the Government’s controversial health reforms.

More than two dozen GP consortia have sought advice from consultancy McKinsey, while NHS managers have enlisted PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to assess when GPs will be ready to take on commissioning services.

The Government’s reforms will see around £80 billion of the NHS budget pass into the hands of GPs, but many organisations and unions are concerned about the increasing role of the private sector.

McKinsey has been working with GP pathfinder groups piloting the new arrangements, in a bid to build their confidence for the commissioning task ahead.

The move at this stage does not involve Oldham, which earlier this year was named among a second wave of consortia, and will cover 50 GP practices serving 238,500 patients.

The body is still being formed and will take on the commissioning role of NHS Oldham — the primary care trust — when it is abolished in 2013.

According to Pulse magazine, PwC has also been signing contracts with strategic health authorities and primary care trusts to advise on GP consortia.

PwC is designing a national checklist to ensure consortia have suitable governance, management structures and support before budgets are handed over, it said.

Karen Jennings, Unison assistant general secretary, said: “Unison has long been warning that the Tories’ titanic reorganisation would leave the door wide open for private companies to dominate our NHS — and here is the evidence.

“Just one private company — McKinsey — has already signed up one fifth of the pathfinder consortia, and we know other big companies are getting their teeth stuck into large chunks of the rest.

“The health service is about what’s best for patients, not the bottom line.

“Less than two years ago McKinsey produced a much–derided report which called for more than 100,000 health workers to be sacked.

“Their vision for the NHS is clear, and was widely panned as being disastrous.

“This is the type of company the Tories are happy to welcome through the front door of our health service.”




Oldham is leading the way in a move which will see private firms bid for contracts to manage the treatment of NHS patients.



A pilot is set to launch across the east of England to put services out to tender, starting with musculoskeletal medicine, respiratory care and elderly care.

Private firms, GPs or voluntary organisations would offer care for a fixed cost.

In Oldham, the musculoskeletal service at Hopwood House, Lees Road, has been providing a similar service for several years.

Under the leadership of local GPs, it has been held up as a national example of good practice.