Hospitals not ‘coasting’, Hunt told
pharmafile | March 11, 2013 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Hunt, NHS
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has angered NHS groups with a speech in which he said some hospitals were ‘coasting’ and too focused on meeting minimum standards.
His comments to the Nuffield Trust last week used the London Olympics – and the prominence of the NHS in the opening ceremony – to make comparisons between patient care and sporting achievement.
“Imagine for a moment that the main objective for our Olympic athletes was not to win but to ‘not come last’,” Hunt said. “How many gold medals would we have won then?”
“I want to suggest that too much of the NHS is focused on doing just that,” he went on. “Not on achieving world class levels of excellence – the gold medals of healthcare – but meeting minimum standards, the equivalent of ‘not coming last’.”
Doctors and nurses groups retorted that their members agree with Hunt about the need for excellence but must have adequate support to achieve it.
“The secretary of state is wrong to imply that hospital staff are prepared to accept mediocrity,” suggested Sir Richard Thompson, president of the Royal College of Physicians.
Trusts are “struggling to cope with an impossible burden of a relentlessly increasing workload coupled with financial restrictions”, he went on.
Dr Peter Carter, Royal College of Nursing chief executive, picked up the baton by using an Olympics reference of his own.
“Team GB’s fantastic success is down to a combination of ambition supported by proper investment and resources, and this needs to be emulated in the NHS,” he insisted.
Carter said nurses agree that hospitals should be aiming for excellence, “but this requires investment and leadership”.
Hunt was adamant that he does not believe the majority of hospitals or wards in the NHS are ‘mediocre’ but warned that preventing another Mid Staffs scandal required a greater focus on best practice.
“The weeds of failure grow more quickly in a garden of mediocrity,” he said. “I do believe our system fails to challenge low aspirations in too many parts of the system. This directly links to the failures of patient safety and compassionate care that we are now having to address.”
The RCP did agree with Hunt that there is variation in the standards of hospital care across the NHS.
“All involved in healthcare must continuously strive to increase standards to their highest possible level for all patients,” Sir Richard agreed.
“For the NHS to achieve universal excellence, delivery of care must be a shared responsibility between healthcare professionals, managers and others working across the system,” he said.
The RCP’s Future Hospital Commission, due to report in June, is to recommend changes to ensure patients are treated with dignity at all times.
Professor Tim Evans, RCP’s lead fellow for this programme, also spoke at the Nuffield Trust event.
“Senior doctors have to be accountable for co-ordinating and assuring patients’ care, beyond specialties,” he said. “There are good hospitals out there, the difference is the leadership and teams they put in place.”
Adam Hill
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