NHS Bureaucracy versus NHS Cuts

[Marmora Man]

The extract below is from a report on just one area of NHS management. (Note that it excludes Strategic Health Authorities and Primary Care Trusts - of which there are very many and which are, at least, just as demanding of audits, inspections and data).

It's mindboggling and so many clinicians are involved in the unnecessary duplication of queries and answers that it makes the job they joined for - caring for patients - so much more difficult.

there is still a bewildering array of at least 69 regulators, auditors, inspectors and accrediting bodies, excluding the role of strategic health authorities and primary care trusts in planning and commissioning.

At the heart of the system, Standards for Better Health consists of 24 core standards plus 13 development standards, with several hundred accompanying criteria or lines of enquiry, covering safety, clinical cost-effectiveness, governance, patient focus, accessible and responsive care, environment and amenities and public health.

Looking at 35 of the bodies that can inspect or ask questions of healthcare providers, we found just four standards from it that are not duplicated by another body. For five of its 77 elements there were 10 or more different bodies each asking between 19 and 47 questions about the issue.

The 35 bodies have 698 standards that map to the DH standards and 166 that do not, while detailed examination of their own standards and definitions indicate subtle differences in wording or timescales.

Given yesterday's debate in Parliament arising from Andrew Lansley's comments about protecting the NHS and cutting elsewhere and Gordon Brown's cynical and disingenuous statements about Labour investment versus Tory cuts this is a very relevant glimpse of what 12 years of Labour "investment" has achieved. A deep cut in this aspect of NHS costs would go a long way to ensuring that it was both more fit for purpose and required fewer increase in funding over next 5 years.

[PeckhamRose]

I would like to ask a question, but - you know - too many being asked already!

Thanks for alerting us to this!