AOP publishes Health Bill policy briefing

The AOP has published its policy briefing on the Health Bill, following the King’s Speech on Wednesday 13 May.

The bill set out a number of changes, including the official abolishment of NHS England, the move to make integrated care boards (ICBs) “strategic commissioners” of services, and the creation of a single patient record. It also brought neighbourhood health plans into legislation for the first time.

The bill “begins to fill in some of the detail from the many NHS policy documents that have been published in recent months,” the AOP said.

One such policy document was the Neighbourhood Health Framework, which was published in March and set out plans for the future organisation of community healthcare, alongside the expectations of ICBs in the coming years.

The policy briefing emphasised that “there are still many areas that are unclear and it will be important to see how the gaps are filled following the recent departure of Wes Streeting from the secretary of state role.”

Wes Streeting resigned as the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on 14 May, and was replaced by James Murray MP the following day.

In its policy briefing, the AOP acknowledged that business owners might have concerns over the move to ICB commissioning of the General Ophthalmic Services (GOS) contract.

The association has sought to reassure practitioners that the change is “largely administrative,” with no new powers granted.

The only change is that ICBs will now commission GOS directly rather than being delegated this power by NHS England, the AOP said.

The AOP noted that “the formalisation of neighbourhood health plans presents an opportunity to ensure optometry services are recognised,” but called the failure to explicitly include optometry in the early phases of the model framework “disappointing.”

The minister for care, Stephen Kinnock MP, has said that ICBs are welcome to include optometry in their plans if they wish, the association added.

The creation of a single patient record, which was included in the bill, is something that the AOP has lobbied for in recent years.

Its inclusion in the bill is “a welcome announcement” and is "one of the most important ways to join up care, prevent avoidable referrals and ensure patients don’t fall through the gaps in the system,” the AOP said.

However, the association emphasised that there are already a number of competing products in this space, and that none have so far been able to solve the problem of siloed patient records.

This is largely because products have been created only with hospitals or GPs, rather than wider primary care, in mind, the briefing said.

“If we are to break this cycle and achieve real transformation, systems that will be used by, or rely upon, optometry must be co-designed with the optometry profession,” the AOP emphasised.

The AOP’s full briefing on the Health Bill can be read here.