Department of Health must ‘toughen up’ contingency plans, says MP  

Commenting on the Commons public accounts committee's report on the proposed reforms to the NHS, South Norfolk MP Richard Bacon, a member of the committee, said: “The Government's proposals for the NHS represent a massive opportunity to improve patient care in this country. However, important issues remain to be resolved if the reforms are to succeed. In particular, the Government must ensure it has the right framework for the protection of patient care and taxpayers' money in the event that either a healthcare provider or a commissioning consortium fails. “In any organisation as large and complex as the NHS, things can and do go wrong, and the Department of Health has yet to establish a robust framework for dealing with failure in the system. “Planning for failure isn't a sign of weakness; it is a hard-headed assessment of the risks that a failing...