Core health standards being missed
In its annual “state of healthcare” report, the Healthcare Commission said on Tuesday 5 per cent of independent sector providers failed five or more of the core standards, with 6 per cent of National Health Service trusts failing a similar test.
Last year, 5 per cent of private acute hospitals failed to meet core standards, half the proportion of the year before, but the failure rate for private and voluntary mental health services – 85 per cent of whose beds are funded by the NHS – was more than 13 per cent.
Mental health is the area in which the NHS relies most heavily on the private sector and has been contracting for longest with it. But Anna Walker, the commission’s chief executive, said primary care trusts had “some way to go in checking how well their purchasing of services is working in this area”.
More than one in 10 independent mental healthcare providers failed to monitor or ensure the quality of treatment. A similar proportion failed to ensure patients were treated in safe premises, while 17 per cent failed to ensure that patients were “appropriately and safely restrained”.
In the acute sector, private hospital groups did much better, with only BMI/General Healthcare of the four big providers failing to meet core standards in every case.
Ms Walker said NHS and private providers were not yet measured by precisely the same standards, but the failings in both sectors were similar.
In the NHS, key failures involved the management of patient records, mandatory staff training and compliance with hygiene standards. In the independent sector, most widely flouted were yardsticks aimed at ensuring that patients were treated by appropriately-trained staff, risk management and treating patients in safe and appropriate premises.
In spite of some dire performance, Sir Ian Kennedy, the commission’s chairman, said: “We are close to being able to offer all patients a minimum guarantee on standards in the NHS and in the private sector – but we are not there yet.” Safety “is being taken more seriously”, he said, but action was still needed to drive through improvements in healthcare-associated infections.
While there was “still some way to go before everyone gets world-class care”, it was “crystal clear” healthcare had improved, with “genuinely dramatic” reductions in waiting times, and the health service contributing to growing life expectancy.
Patients were, however, still waiting far too long for “talking therapies”, help with deafness and for physiotherapy, which was covered by formal waiting time targets, he said.
Concerns remained about dignity and privacy in some hospitals, and the failure to correct health inequalities.
NHS patients face humiliating treatment- whatever happened to Dignity? was psoted by Health Direct on Thu 6 Dec 2007- Hospitals are still failing to treat people with dignity and respect as complaints reveal patients left unwashed, in soiled bedding and in humiliating open-backed gowns, the Healthcare Commission has said.
