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New Health and Care Bill will reorganise the NHS

Written by Jeff Courtney, January 21, 2022

The Health and Care Bill, which is currently being debated in parliament, has the potential to change where decisions are made on what care and treatment are available to people with bleeding disorders.

Currently, the Clinical Reference Group for specialised blood disorders (CRG), which is part of NHS England, sets service standards for all of England. However, the bill will create Integrated Care Services (ICSs) and Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) – regional NHS bodies – to which specialised commissioning can be delegated. This, if unchecked, has the potential to further widen differences in access to care and treatment across England.

Our hope, however, is that this won’t be the case and we have been campaigning to ensure this. The Haemophilia Society are members of the Specialised Health Care Alliance (SHCA), a group of charities representing the interests of people with rare diseases. Through the SHCA we have been advocating that national standards, service specifications and clinical policies must stay in place and there must be systems to ensure those standards are maintained.

We sit on the CRG that sets national standards so we are also able to contribute to maintaining and expanding them. While, it is unlikely that haemophilia services drastically change in the short term when the new structure comes in, we will continue to look out for the interests of our members.

President of the Haemophilia Society Baroness Meacher also spoke in the House of Lords this week to ensure the Bill treats children fairly in its provisions.

If you have any issues getting access to the treatment or care you need for your of your child’s bleeding disorder, leave a comment or email us on [email protected]