The Department of Health’s risk register on the NHS reforms has been leaked online on the day the Health Bill reached Royal Assent.
The Transition Risk Register raised a host of concerns about the introduction of the Health and Social Care Bill including the NHS losing control of finance and performance, the morale of staff and dispute with unions.
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley had previously claimed the register was a “worst case scenario”.
Labour MP John Healey had requested the DH release the register whilst he was shadow health secretary in November 2010 under the freedom of information law.
A tribunal ruled earlier this month that the risk register should be published before the Bill had passed through Parliament. However, the DH indicated it would appeal the decision and the publishing of the register was again delayed.
The version which was leaked online is one of the first iterations of the register. Dated 28 September 2010, it was created three months after the Government’s initial white paper was published.
The most significant and likely risks, the document reveals, surround the loss of control of finances and performance. It states: “By dismantling the current management structures and controls, [there could be] more failures, including financial, e.g. GP consortia go bust or have to cut services, and credibility of the system declines as a result.”
Worries were also raised that the NHS Commissioning Board “is not sufficiently developed” and that consortia or GP leaders who are not sufficiently developed “may be drawn into managerial processes which drive clinical behaviour (rather than the other way around)”.
The document also warns that the “new system” will be designed from an internal perspective without considering the views of the general public and patients and lead it to being “difficult for the public to navigate or hold to account”.
Risks referring to the Treasury include: an inability to reduce running costs due to the number of consortia; a reduction in the amount of time GP spend with patients due to management responsibilities; ‘postcode’ commissioning; an increase in “catastrophic failure” with no system management; and GPs creating an increase in their remuneration by “playing the system”.
The register also indicated the Government was considering splitting the Health Bill into two parts as it faced a host of opposition against the controversial reforms in the autumn of 2010. However, there were worries over whether parliamentary time could be found for two separate pieces of legislation.
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