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The health service is entering a “dark and dangerous period”
because of the economic crisis, the Chairman of the BMA’s Consultants
Committee warned in a speech today (Wednesday 3 June, 2009). Arguing that public
money must not be diverted away from patient care into “the pockets of
shareholders”, Dr Jonathan Fielden called for private management consultants
to be “ditched” from the NHS.
Addressing the BMA’s annual Consultants Conference, Dr Fielden celebrated
successes in the NHS while condemning “aberrant corporate cultures”
in some hospitals, which had led to “painful blots on the NHS landscape”
such as substandard care at Stafford Hospital.
“Waiting times are at an all time low, survival rates are increasing,
patient experience is improving. Our hospitals are cleaner, safer and better
than ever before,” he said.
“However, there have been clear failings where patients have not
received the high quality care they deserved, where the processes, systems
and sometimes individuals have let them down. Painful, dreadful blots on the
NHS landscape, where patient care has suffered.
In each of these there is a common theme: targets being put in front
of quality, staff not being listened to, aberrant corporate cultures suppressing
concerns and disregarding safety. Doctors must challenge this culture of denial
and lead a better way forward.”
Dr Fielden announced the results of a BMA survey indicating that three quarters
(74%) of hospital doctors had had concerns about issues relating to patient
safety, malpractice or bullying, over the course of their careers. Seven in
ten (70%) of these had raised the issues at their trust, but their experiences
had often been negative, for example because they were unaware that anything
had happened as a result (46%) or their trusts had indicated that by speaking
up, their employment could be negatively affected (15.5%).
And in a criticism of the £350 million reportedly spent on independent
management consultants in the English NHS last year, Dr Fielden said NHS doctors
were motivated by different incentives:
“Let more money remain in the NHS - hard-earned taxpayers’
money going where they want it - into patient care, not the pockets of shareholders.
It is the ethos, the faith that is at the heart of the Health Service that
drives us. One that management consultants, brought up in the tarnished world
of finance fail to understand.
Ditch the external management consultants - when we see them flogging
our ideas, there is palpable frustration that we are not utilising the great
talents across the NHS.
For the first time in working memory, we may see real cuts in health
spending. This will provoke some stark choices: what is kept, what is cut,
what can the NHS afford? Let’s ensure that it’s doctors making
those difficult decisions in partnership with our patients and healthcare
colleagues, not faceless bureaucrats, accountants, and those out to fleece
the taxpayer.
Identifying further areas where savings might be made, he criticised
the amount paid to Independent Sector Treatment Centres for work that was
not carried out, as much as £927 million in England according to an
estimate in a recent study, as “a dangerous waste.”
And he called for the current £1.7 billion surplus in the NHS to be reinvested
in patient care:
“It has been hard-earned and our patients need it. The treasury
must not pilfer this coffer. NHS money is for NHS patients.”
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Any views expressed in the article above are not necessarily those of IvyRose
Ltd.. Material in this news item was released by the British Medical Assocition
(BMA) on 3 June 2009
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