Sunday 9 August 2009

NHS follows rules that 'guarantee failure', says Civitas

Tell us something we didn't know.

The National Health Service follows every known rule that guarantees failure in the business world, a new report claims.

It claimed that NHS organisations remain "isolated and risk averse, consumed with internal processes, bureaucracy, and conforming to the latest Government initiative".

This came at the expense of "focusing squarely on the end-goal of providing high quality care to the patient".

A top-down target culture was to blame. It said: "Targets have ruled the roost, pushing organisations to the edge, often to the neglect of patient care."

A target to treat patients within four hours has meant that patients are held in ambulances, or admitted unnecessarily.
Time for a change, then. Over to you, Department of Health.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "National targets have led to huge improvements in the care patients receive."
Translation: La la la, we're not listening.

Source: Daily Telegraph

3 comments:

Dr Liz Miller said...

Thanks for this - I saw a patient on Friday, with a missed tendon injury. If staff don't have the time to do their job, or the training, these injuries will be missed.

Three months down the line, this guy is about to lose his job and all chance of work

Witterings from Witney said...

"A Department of XXXXXX spokesman said: "National targets have led to huge improvements"

Now where have I heard that before?

Just because the right forms have been filled in (correctly) and the right boxes ticked (correctly) has no bearing on the resultant chaos at the 'business' end of a 'service'!

Not very often I swear and in this case, forgive me - F'ing Idiots!

Dr Liz Miller said...

1984 was written as a warning not an instruction manual