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Nurses set to be handed more power

27/06/2008

Nurses are to be given "far more" decision-making powers under new proposals for the future of the NHS, a government report has revealed.

In the coming week the next stage of surgeon and health minister Lord Ara Darzi's review of the health service is due to be published.

A Cabinet report released today says this review will include "significant new proposals to devolve far more decision-making powers to nurses, doctors and other front-line health care professionals".

It adds that the greater powers would encourage innovation and improve the quality of services.

With frontline staff making more decisions, the government would concentrate on strategic issues such as reducing health inequalities.

Writing in the foreword to the report, the prime minister said reforming public services requires the government to "create new opportunities for professionals to take control of the process of change – with less top-down control and a greater say for front-line staff".

"We will learn from the approach taken by Lord Darzi's unprecedented Next Stage Review of the NHS, which has drawn on the ideas and inspiration of over 2,000 clinicians from every part of the country, and work with professionals in new ways - enabling them to take the initiative in increasing quality and meeting citizens' needs," Gordon Brown wrote.

"Building on the success of the foundation trust model in the NHS, which now sees a million people actively involved in the governance of their local hospitals, I believe that over the next decade we will see a growing role for independent public service providers, voluntary organisations and social enterprises.

"We have only just begun to harness the potential of these kinds of non-profit organisations and in the coming weeks we will set out how we can promote a new wave of innovation led by social enterprise whilst protecting the values of publicly funded services free at the point of use."