A rather disturbing report from the Healthcare Commission in England has found that less than half the staff in the NHS believe that patient care is top priority for the Trusts which provide NHS services.
That’s pretty shocking. Shouldn’t it be clear to everyone who works in health care that THE top priority should ALWAYS be patient care? There’s something going badly wrong if patient care is NOT the top priority. Health care is about people, and there are two groups of people who are very important in delivering health care – the patients and the carers (staff). This latter group, as far as the NHS is concerned, are not a happy group. The same report states that only one in four staff members feel valued by their bosses.
There’s been something going on in the NHS in recent years……a form of managerialism which has introduced management methods from industry and commerce which are not appropriate in health care. “Agenda for Change” has broken NHS staff morale, and is probably one of the key factors causing staff feelings of being undervalued. And targets based on throughput and so-called outcomes is producing a health service which has lost sight of its main purpose.
Health care should be about caring – caring for the people who use the service and those who provide it.
Heroes Not Zombies 
Very true, health care should always be first about the paitent. It is a very unfortunate truth that the paitent tends to be on the lowest rung of the ladder when it comes to healthcare systems.
Have to agree, and the rest. Morale so low at ground level after the pantomime of A4C, where jobs were “fitted” to available, pre-determined budgets. Job descriptions to justify low band level having no similarity to the actual requiremennts of the roles- the care of patients. I’m a nurse, but everyone at operational level is affected If you dare to disagree or expect to be treated according to agreed rights, you become a target for intimidation and harrassment from ever more detached [but very well paid and generally poorly qualified ] managers. All principles of best practice, both for patients and staff, come a poor second to the “needs of the organisation”. It’s become a monster that will consume anything for gratification of its current needs without any concern for tomorrow, or the effect on its own environment. A micro-system reflecting society maybe. What do we do? Wish I knew, all suggestions welcome.
Thank you both for you comments. But how has this happened? Do you think we can reclaim health care and really make people the most important part of the equation? I do hope so. I think we all need to say it, clearly and frequently. Just keeping pushing forward the purpose of the service – people helping people.
Bob, just discovered this article and it along with the comments are still very relevant in the US. We try to hide this fact with words like efficient, effective, timely instead of talking about how the best care is the cheapest care, reducing waste and being driven by collective experiences. We even talk about the business of healthcare. In the US it seems like most of this is driven by our cultural greed with CEO arguing that no one will run a hospital that is capable for less than millions of dollars per year. Further we have system meetings where the CEO comes out on a red carpet and the marketing folks rev up the crowd—everybody wants to be a rock star and grab more than there 15 minutes of fame. Good read