Meeting Londoners' health needs: Professor Sir Ara Darzi to develop new strategy

NHS London tasks Sir Ara with setting out the best possible models of care for patients - News

By Laura Gallagher
3 January 2006

A strategy to meet Londoners' health needs over the next five to ten years is being developed by Imperial College's Professor Sir Ara Darzi . NHS London has tasked Sir Ara with setting out the best possible models of care for patients, to provide the principles for any future local changes in the NHS.

Sir Ara, who is Paul Hamlyn Chair of Surgery at Imperial, will look at examples of high quality healthcare across the UK and in other parts of the world, in particular large cities, and draw on those to set out the framework for Londoners' future healthcare.

NHS London believes the new strategy, which will be known as 'Healthcare For London: A Framework For Action,' is needed because London’s health services are not keeping pace with the changes in medicine. This means that health and healthcare in London is not as good as it could be. NHS London also feels that London's world class reputation in health science research is in jeopardy if the capital does not change.

Sir Ara will be gathering input from GPs, hospital doctors, nurses and other front-line NHS staff. He will also consult and involve patients, the public, MPs, the Mayor of London, the Greater London Authority, London Councils, user organisations and academic institutions.

Sir Ara said: "I am determined that we discuss the future properly not only with relevant London organisations, but also with those with experience of providing and receiving NHS services – frontline staff and patients. We will be organising events to discuss ideas and inviting feedback through a website and other means. There will be some complex and difficult choices to be made and we must involve staff, patients and the public properly to help us make them."

Chief Executive of NHS London, Ruth Carnall, added: "I am delighted that Professor Darzi has agreed to lead this work. His leadership of Healthcare for London means we have a fantastic opportunity to understand how to provide the best possible health services for patients and the public.

"Of course there are local reviews underway in many parts of London already. Where those reviews need to go ahead as a matter of urgency, they must fit together as far as possible to offer Londoners a joined-up and well thought out set of NHS services," she said.

An initial document, setting out the framework and models of service for patients will be published in the spring. A further process of wide-ranging public involvement and discussion will produce a final health strategy for London which will be published in summer 2007.

Sir Ara is Head of the Division of Surgery, Oncology, Reproductive Biology and Anaesthetics at Imperial and one of the country's leading surgeons. He has consistently been at the forefront of developing new surgical techniques and technologies to benefit medicine and healthcare.

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