- Smart Healthcare, Wednesday 25 November 2009 00.05 GMT
In a move that could point towards a radical change in the method of delivering healthcare, the county council has laid plans with Eastern and Coastal Kent Primary Care Trust to make the Kent Card available for some patients to obtain services from a list of approved suppliers.
The Personal Health Budgets pilot is scheduled to run for three years from April 2010 and will involve 75 using maternity, continuing healthcare, end of life, carers and mental health services. The Department of Health is to provide funds for the evaluation.
Peter Gilroy, chief executive of Kent CC, told SmartHealthcare.com that the Royal Bank of Scotland has been redesigning the chip and PIN card for use in the process.
The PCT will determine what services would be appropriate for a patient and what monetary value should be loaded onto the card. Card holders will then be able to make their own choices in areas such as maternity services, equipment and continuing care, from a list of suppliers approved by the PCT. This is likely to include private and voluntary organisations as well as NHS bodies.
"It will be quite a jump in healthcare provision," Gilroy said. "For example, for maternity there will be a prepared list of contractors, so the business may go to the NHS or to the private or voluntary sectors.
"It marks a shift away from the notion of bulk and volume contracts in the commissioning strategy."
Gilroy said that under the system there is no guarantee of any supplier on the approved list actually winning business, because that would be the choice of individual patients.
Kent CC already uses the Kent Card for a similar process to provide social care services, and has estimated that providing the Personal Health Budget should not cost more than delivering NHS services through conventional routes.
Alison Davis, assistant commissioning director from NHS Eastern and Coastal Kent, said: "The Kent Card is designed to give people more control of their own lives. This pilot programme will give a small group of people a chance to find out how taking more control of their healthcare might work out in practice.
"As the priority with the Kent Card is choice, it is important to remember that the Kent Card is not a compulsory approach to health care and there is no expectation that it would become compulsory. It is simply about providing choice for those who want to take more control."
She added that using the card will not cut out the patient's GP or nullify a doctor's advice, but would give the patient more choice.
Gilroy said there are also plans for the council to further develop its telecare service by making it available through BlackBerrys.
