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League Tables for Hospitals
I like Wes Streeting. I love his passion for the NHS. And his passion to try and improve the NHS.
I sympathise with his desire to improve the NHS via League Tables. It sounds good. But, sadly, it is not the answer. For these reasons:-
1. Hospitals are already rated. This is not new. Hospitals are like schools, in that most are rated outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate. Last year, of the 2,393 Hospitals in England, 245 "required improvement" and 23 were "inadequate". 132 and 7, respectively, were NHS (as opposed to Private) Hospitals.
https://metro.co.uk/2023/05/22/map-shows-locations-of-englands-worst-rated-inadequate-hospitals-18824593/
2. The problems arise once it is known that a Hospital is in 1 of those 2 weaker categories. My Sister not only had the misfortune to have terminal cancer in 2023. She also had the misfortune to be under the care of a major Hospital that "requires improvement". What happens is this. Half of the brightest and best staff leave. They are readily employable elsewhere, and they do not wish their career to be tainted by this. While (of course) the worst stay-they have to. At the same time, such Hospitals face a recruitment crisis-who wants to choose to go there? This is particularly the case at Senior levels, where middle Managers (both medical and non-medical) have to fill positions for which they lack experience.
3. The idea of sending in crash teams of experts to fix problems? I had experience of both ends of that-employee at such a business, and being in the team that provides solutions elsewhere. It creates its own-often seismic-problems. May well provide long-term solutions. But (at least to some extent) at the cost of damaging short-term care provision
My solution to all this? No-one has solutions. But 1 thing that would help is this. Wes Streeting has correctly identified the problem of poor Managers being paid off and then reappearing elsewhere. It is high time that the NHS acted as a National Health Service, rather than competing Trusts, and proper in-depth references were standardised. Together with sensible restrictions relating to "agreed references"
I sympathise with his desire to improve the NHS via League Tables. It sounds good. But, sadly, it is not the answer. For these reasons:-
1. Hospitals are already rated. This is not new. Hospitals are like schools, in that most are rated outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate. Last year, of the 2,393 Hospitals in England, 245 "required improvement" and 23 were "inadequate". 132 and 7, respectively, were NHS (as opposed to Private) Hospitals.
https://metro.co.uk/2023/05/22/map-shows-locations-of-englands-worst-rated-inadequate-hospitals-18824593/
2. The problems arise once it is known that a Hospital is in 1 of those 2 weaker categories. My Sister not only had the misfortune to have terminal cancer in 2023. She also had the misfortune to be under the care of a major Hospital that "requires improvement". What happens is this. Half of the brightest and best staff leave. They are readily employable elsewhere, and they do not wish their career to be tainted by this. While (of course) the worst stay-they have to. At the same time, such Hospitals face a recruitment crisis-who wants to choose to go there? This is particularly the case at Senior levels, where middle Managers (both medical and non-medical) have to fill positions for which they lack experience.
3. The idea of sending in crash teams of experts to fix problems? I had experience of both ends of that-employee at such a business, and being in the team that provides solutions elsewhere. It creates its own-often seismic-problems. May well provide long-term solutions. But (at least to some extent) at the cost of damaging short-term care provision
My solution to all this? No-one has solutions. But 1 thing that would help is this. Wes Streeting has correctly identified the problem of poor Managers being paid off and then reappearing elsewhere. It is high time that the NHS acted as a National Health Service, rather than competing Trusts, and proper in-depth references were standardised. Together with sensible restrictions relating to "agreed references"