Hunt demands culture change to ensure NHS is patient-focused

7 Oct 15

There needs to be a cultural shift in how the NHS is run in order to ensure it is focused on patients, health secretary Jeremy Hunt told the Conservative conference.

Hunt told annual gathering in Manchester that, as the NHS was the fifth largest organisation in the world in terms of staff, many previous holders of his post had tried to mandate change across the system by introducing targets.

Although these had worked individually – for example bringing down waiting times and speeding up Accident & Emergency admissions – they had “undermined the professionalism and sense of vocation that should be at the heart of medicine”, he argued.

“Now I'm not going to scrap every target because patients should never have to wait too long for treatment.

“But we do believe peer-review, transparency and openness about performance is a better way to drive up standards than endless new targets.”

In order to drive this cultural change, Hunt announced that from next May, more information will be published on the government’s MyNHS website. The would cover avoidable death rates in hospitals, as well as area-by-area information on the quality of mental health and cancer care. This will be in addition to information about the quality of GP services and surgeon mortality rates already available.

“Some people have criticised this as 'naming and shaming' – but there are no sanctions or punishments for those with low scores, just the opportunity to improve,” he stated.

“Transparency for patients, not targets for politicians. A new culture where patients always come first.”

Hunt also said the government’s pledge to provide an additional £10bn for the NHS by 2020 was “a massive commitment in the face of the worst deficit in our peacetime history”.

However, he added that this would need to be accompanied by moves to introduce seven-day services.

This was not just about the convenience of evening and weekend appointments but to end what he called the scandal of 11,000 excess deaths each year because of the ‘weekend effect’ in hospitals.

“We are not asking junior doctors to work longer hours – that wouldn't be safe. Nor is it our intention to cut doctors’ pay – and it is utterly irresponsible to try and scare people into believing we are,” he stated.

“But we do want to support the many doctors who do work weekends with properly staffed shifts, safe working hours and seven-day diagnostic services so that patients are not put at risk.”

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