Nurses for Reform Blog

This is a great article in the Daily Telegraph discussing the history of mutuality in healthcare provision.  It is fascinating that all of the three main political parties are desperate to demonstrate their co-operative  credentials now that the public are way ahead of them. This article quotes a poll that shows only 11% of people want the government to deliver public services directly.

While I am aware that nurses are not saints or angels, I was horrified when I read this story.  Of course, when a colleague leaves for a new job, I am sure that in many professions there will be some fun and games prior to a leaving party.  However, when, according to the National Patient’s Safety Agency, NHS malnutrition incidents rose from 15,473 in 2005 to 29,138 in 2007 and  overall, during this period almost 70,000 malnutrition and starvation “patient incidents” were recorded, do these nurses really think that it is appropriate to be wasting the very supplements that could be preventing some patients from starving?

This is what happens when there is a system where everything is thought of as being “free”.  Price something at zero and it is valued by no-one!

As the NHS electronic patient record system starts to be rolled out, here is yet another story of the disastrous management of patient information by the NHS.  Granted the system has been suspended for the time being, but don’t let this fool you, it will be back.

Regular readers of this blog will know that I, and others, have been warning against these systems for many years.

I would urge all UK readers of this blog to head to this website, download the opt-out form, complete it and take it to your GP.  I am also going to ask for written confirmation that my request has been adhered to.  It’s not that I don’t trust them, but…

Today I am off to speak to the fast-track graduates at the Department of Health.

I am participating in a debate and proposing the motion “This house believes that the founding principals of the NHS are no longer sustainable and that medically necessary services should and will be chargeable by 2010″

I will let you know how I get on!

I normally do not comment on clinical or individual nursing issues, but this story has annoyed me so much I felt that I had to post a small blog.

While I am happy to respect all religious beliefs, as long as they do not impose on my personal beliefs (just as I would not impose my beliefs on others) I must disagree with the nurse who has recently made an issue of wearing a necklace showing a Christian symbol at work.

In my view this is not a religious issue but a clinical one.  When I began my nurse training in the 1980s one of the first things that we were told was that nurses must never wear necklaces of any kind while on duty, as an ill or confused patient may be able to get hold of the necklace and try to cause the nurse an injury with it.  This is why all lanyards for ID badges have quick release mechanisms so that staff cannot be harmed while wearing them.

Therefore, rather than bleating on about religious beliefs I believe that this nurse should get a grip and realise that no clinical staff should be wearing anything around their necks that could be used to harm them.  Her employers, indeed all employers of clinical and care staff must also ensure that they enforce neckwear rules across the religious spectrum.

I have said it before but I am happy to say it again and again until the message gets through.  Whichever party wins the general election on 6th May, below is the action that NFR believes must be taken to reform the NHS and to ensure that UK patients receive timely and effective healthcare.

Introduction

Mindful of a likely change of government in 2010, Nurses for Reform believes that the NHS should be renamed the National Health SYSTEM and that it should work through the universal supply of independent hospital care and treatment. Simply put, there should be no hospitals in this country owned by the state or managed by its agents.

Cheaper and Better

There was once a time before the industrial revolution when food production was onerous and costly.  Many could not afford a nourishing, diverse or pleasurable diet and all too often people went hungry.

There was a time before the invention of the steam, internal combustion and jet engines when options for travel were limited and any significant distance remained the preserve of the rich.

There was also a time, not so long ago, when telephones were rationed and lengthy calls were beyond the means of most people.

Yet today, thanks to open and innovative markets, people can afford diverse food, extensive travel and outstanding telecommunications. What was once beyond the dreams of avarice are now part of every day life and taken for granted.

Universal Independent Hospital Provision

That is why the next government must liberate health provision from the rationed and expensive world of top-down of un-innovative state control. All NHS hospitals must be returned to the independent sector, not least so that such provision reflects actual needs and not the political whims of vote-motivated politicians. At a practical level this means the following key points:

• In the post-bureaucratic age the Secretary of State for Health must no longer have any say over when or where hospitals are built, opened or closed.
• Following the planned changes in education, local planning laws must be reformed so as to enable a much greater diversity of – and investment in – independent provision.
• The planned Independent NHS Board should oversee the return of all UK hospitals to diverse forms of independent ownership (for-profit and not-for-profit).
• Health censorship must be outlawed and patients must be empowered with greater access to information. In this context hospitals, doctors and other health professionals including pharmaceutical suppliers should be free to advertise and build trusted brands. Only by allowing reputations to be built openly, bottom-up will the government be able to realise a lighter touch in regulation.
• To encourage openness, diversity and greater opportunity for staff, employers and patients, an incoming Conservative administration must also adopt the principle of subsidiarity when it comes to human resource management. Hospitals, care homes and all other health facilities should be able to set pay and conditions for staff as they think appropriate and take the lead in all medical and health training. National collective pay bargaining and professional monopolies should be abandoned in favour of a more post-bureaucratic approach.

By putting these key initiatives in place not only will there be a vast improvement in the provision of healthcare but, these changes will enable further micro-political changes to health funding. Overall, these reforms are necessary so that healthcare is pushed through the beneficial reforms that we now enjoy in so many other areas of our daily lives.

This is a great piece in the Daily Mail by Dr Karol Sikora.  In it he points out that NHS patients are being put at risk by hospitals using untested doctors to ensure that they achieve government targets.

What is interesting here is the contrast with the UK’s independent sector.  Patient safety is paramount to the independent sector, as harming their patients harms their reputation and this would ultimately destroy their business.  The independent sector are much more careful of the staff that they employ or allow admitting rights to their hospitals, Consultants wishing to have admitting rights to independent sector hospitals are subject to strict scrutiny and peer review and only allowed in when it is trusted that they will bring benefit to the organisation.

The problem with Government setting targets for NHS hospitals it that the target not the patient becomes the priority, as NHS managers strive to please their political paymasters they lose sight of the damage that is being done to the people who should really matter, the patients!