NHS complaints system too bureaucratic for patients, says report

Only a tiny fraction of patients unhappy with the NHS make a formal complaint because of a bureaucratic, confusing system which changes little, according to a new report.

The National Audit Office (NAO) found that while 14 per cent of patients were unhappy with their NHS service, less than one per cent made a formal complaint to their health trust.

There was also little evidence of services improving as a result of complaints made.

It also found that one in five health trusts took too long to respond to patient complaints.

While most met the target of an average of 25 working days to answer complaints, one took 55 days, more than twice as long.

Edward Leigh, Chairman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, said that the reason so few patients make formal complaints is that they have "no confidence anything will be done as a result".

"Complainants are often confronted with a defensive and unhelpful response when sometimes all that is needed is a simple apology or a promise to improve services.

"There is also little evidence that complaints are leading to better services. This is no way to keep people's faith and trust in health and social care services."

The criticism comes after David Cameron, the Conservative leader, attacked Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, for an allegedly cold and bureaucratic response to a complaint over the
death one of his constituents, Elizabeth Woods, after she contracted the superbug MRSA.

There were 133,600 official complaints about the NHS last year.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said that ministers agreed that the NHS had to be better at handling complaints and that was why a new, simplified system would be introduced next year.
NHS-complaints-system-too-bureaucratic-for-patients-says-report.html

Tories plan a bonfire of the NHS targets in bid to save 100,000 lives

David Cameron has set out his vision for the health service, with a promise to save 100,000 lives a year by giving patients more information and more power over their own care.

Labour’s internal NHS targets will be ditched and patients simply told which hospitals get the best results, under the radical Tory plans.

“How long will my dad survive if he gets cancer? What are my chances of a good life if I have a stroke? What are my chances of surviving from heart disease? This is the kind of information people want and need,” Mr Cameron planned to say.

He was also listing a series of goals - reminiscent of New Labour's 1997 pledge cards - so that voters could hold a Conservative Government to account over its handling of the health service.

These include:

* raising cancer five year survival rates to above the EU average by 2015

* cutting early deaths from stroke and heart disease to below EU averages by 2015

* cutting early deaths from lung disease to below EU averages by 2020

* annual improvements in survival rates and quality of life for patients living with long-term conditions.

The Tories chose the 60th anniversary of the creation of the NHS to unveil their “Green Paper” on health policy, ‘Delivering some of the best health in Europe’, before an audience at the Royal College of Surgeons in London.

Mr Cameron has been eager to stress his commitment to the service, and neutralise Labour claims that a Tory Government would downgrade it.

He argued that Labour has strangled the NHS in red tape, “testing to destruction the idea that the NHS can be improved by more bureaucracy, more central control and more initiatives from the Department of Health”.

According to the Tories, raising NHS standards to the European average would save around 38,000 lives every year, but their “ambition” is to lift performance to match the best systems in the world, which would save at least 100,000.

Mr Cameron insisted that outcomes are the only thing that matters for patients: “What matters is the result itself, not how it is achieved.”

Niall Dickson, chief executive of the King’s Fund, welcomed the plans.

“(The Conservatives) are right that what matters to patients is whether their quality of life has improved following surgery or any other procedure rather than whether top-down targets have been met," he said.

’But the Conservatives’ plan to abolish central targets needs to be considered carefully. Before we drop central targets altogether, we must be sure that there are appropriate safeguards to ensure standards and aspirations are in place.”

From:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article4204107.ece

Cameron promises a bare knuckle fight to save NHS District Hospital services

David Cameron the Conservative leader, attempted to regain the political initiative today by promising a "bare knuckle fight" with the Government to save local NHS hospitals from closure.

Amid speculation that Gordon Brown is planning an early election, Mr Cameron sought to reassert his centre-ground credentials by claiming that labour Ministers are attempting to close district hospitals.

"The basic point here is we believe the district general hospital is an absolutely key part of the NHS," the Tory leader said.

"People have put money into the NHS, they’ve paid increased taxes and they want to see their district general hospital improve. People simply do not understand why maternity units and accident and emergency units are being shut down when actually accident and emergency admissions are up and births are up."

He added: "The labour government’s new health minister, Sir Ara Darzi, has said ’the days of the district general hospital are over’.

"That’s why I say the Government can expect a bare knuckle fight with us over the next few weeks and months about saving district general hospitals as a key part of the local NHS."

Mr Cameron made his remarks ahead of a trip to Sussex this afternoon where he was due to visit a hospital.

"What people will see in the run-up to the next election is that all the problems the country faces today - whether it’s NHS closures, family and social breakdown, whether it’s a weak pension system, whether it’s the stealth taxes they are having to pay that are making the cost of living so hard to meet - they can trace all of those decisions back to Gordon Brown sitting at a desk in Number 11 Downing Street as Chancellor," he said.

Speaking later, a Department of Health spokesman said that the Tory leader had quoted Lord Darzi out of context.

From:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2294162.ece

Cameron kills health 'passport' idea

David Cameron has put the final stake in the heart of the Conservatives' proposal at the last election for a "patient passport", which would have allowed patients to use National Health Service funds to contribute towards the cost of private operations.

Speaking at the NHS Confederation's annual conference in London, Mr Cameron promised legislation to outlaw such a policy in the future. He added that the Conservatives' "first piece of health legislation" would commit the Tories to a comprehensive, universal health service funded out of taxation. But it would go further and "enshrine in law that NHS money should only be spent on NHS patients", he said, ruling out the "patient passport" proposal.

In future there would be "no opt-outs" and "that's a guarantee", Mr Cameron told the conference of NHS managers and board members. "We are not going to use NHS money to help people get out of the NHS into private healthcare. NHS money will be spent on NHS patients and that will be written into the law."

He underlined that he wanted there to be "no doubt whatsoever" the next Conservative government would uphold the principle of an NHS paid for out of general taxation.

Without naming specific sums, he said the Conservatives would "always support the NHS with the money it needs".

Andrew Lansley, the party's health spokesman, said that would mean "additional, growing, real-term resources" - reflecting the fact that as countries grew richer they spent a greater proportion of their total income on healthcare.

Meanwhile, David Nicholson, the NHS chief executive, without directly naming them, launched a strong attack on "the vested interests" of the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Nursing for wild claims that the NHS was "on its knees" or that the service's financial performance was "a tragedy" or "a farce".

Such claims "are not just factually incorrect", said Mr Nicholson. "They are deeply damaging to the public confidence and staff morale".

From:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2477045c-1f93-11dc-ac86-000b5df10621.html

On Jan 24 07 Health Direct posted- Conservative's David Cameron would hand power back to GPs as many centralist targets for the National Health Service would be scrapped under a Conservative government as more purchasing power was handed to family doctors, David Cameron, the Tory leader said.

The policy would encompass a full-blooded return to GP fundholding - the practice of giving family doctors budgets to buy care on behalf of their patients, which Labour abolished but is now partially reinstating through practice based commissioning.

Health Direct also points out that government actions also loose elections.

Health Direct has frequently raised the issue of waste that labour's blizzard of targets has created for the NHS. On Dec 18 06 in Labour's mismanagement has led to NHS deficits according to Commons Health Select Commitee Mismanagement at all levels of the NHS in England has led to the current multimillion pound deficit, a committee of MPs has found.

The Commons health select committee said existing deficits were made worse by the cost of new staff pay deals and the expense of meeting NHS targets. Last year's NHS deficit was £547m.

The committee said historic deficits, long hidden, were revealed when the government changed the rules so trusts could not underspend their capital budget to subsidise current spending.

But it said the government fuelled the problem by agreeing to new pay deals for doctors and nurses using estimates of the cost which were "hopelessly unrealistic".

In addition, meeting national targets such as the requirement that no patient should wait more than four hours in A&E had been costly.