NHS should adopt new ways of working, such as joint ventures and collaboratives with private providers, Dalton report says

The NHS looks set to extend the ways it runs services, including issuing more contracts to private companies to manage hospitals, after a review carried out for the Department of Health for England.

The review’s author, David Dalton, said it was “perplexing” that England had not adopted new organisational forms seen in Europe that could raise the standards of care and reduce cost overheads. He said that models such as “hospital groups” and the use of management contracts might become more widespread, along with other forms: provider collaboratives, joint ventures, integrated care organisations, and service level or multiservice chains. He said that top performing healthcare providers should share their systems and expertise to help those in difficulty.

“There will be risks in taking this agenda forward, but I am confident that the NHS is capable of managing these. The prize will be a sustainable NHS for the long term,” Dalton said. The so called Dalton review, published on 5 December,1 has 22 recommendations for national and local NHS bodies and urges them to take steps to streamline processes and speed up change.

The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, …