Hunt: ‘Listen to patients’
pharmafile | March 18, 2013 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Hunt, NHS
A review of NHS complaints handling, aimed at ensuring that all hospitals listen to and act upon the concerns of patients, has been launched by the government.
It will be led by MP Ann Clwyd and Professor Tricia Hart, who is chief executive of South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and advisor to Robert Francis during two inquiries into Mid Staffs.
“Complaints can be the earliest symptom of a problem within an organisation and the NHS should use them to learn from and improve their service,” said health secretary Jeremy Hunt.
The review will seek existing best practice and is set to recommend a set of common standards by which to assess and hold to account NHS hospitals.
How information arising from patient concerns can be turned into action, the skills that NHS staff may need, how patients should be supported through the process and the handling of whistleblowers are among the topics it is expected to cover.
In a separate move, NHS Confederation chief executive Mike Farrar said today that the health service must involve patients and carers more in a bid to rebuild confidence and gain support for the difficult choices on spending that it faces.
“The NHS has come under fire in recent weeks and has been accused of not being open and honest with patients and the public,” Farrar said. “We need to address this head-on and make sure that our public services are fully accountable to the people who pay for them.”
Financial pressures faced by the health service and the changes that need to be made have to be carefully explained, he went on.
“If we fail to discuss these issues now, we will have no mandate for change in the future,” he said. “We will feel the full force of public wrath for failing to consult on the choices we have. We cannot risk the wheels coming off and patient care suffering.”
Hunt has said 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 general focus on best practice.
“The weeds of failure grow more quickly in a garden of mediocrity,” he told a health conference earlier this month.
“I do believe our system fails to challenge low aspirations in too many parts of the system,” he went on. “This directly links to the failures of patient safety and compassionate care that we are now having to address.”
Adam Hill
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