Editor's Comment

Don’t shoot the messenger

There’s no doubt that we need both cultural and organisational changes to achieve the improvements that we all want to see in complaints handling in the NHS, and in its treatment of (and encouragement for) whistleblowers.

The current system is fragmented and complex, with potentially valuable lessons from complaints often going un-learnt, and a defensive attitude still prevailing too often. Patients and families will obviously welcome simplifications and improvements to the complaints system – which will, in turn, encourage more people who have received poor care to complain in the first place. Many people don’t at the moment because of confusion about who to turn to, or doubts their complaint will have any effect.

The Complaints Programme Board and Healthwatch England, on behalf of patients, are right to split work in this area into two streams – short-term improvements to the current, broken system to at least make things easier, and longer-term plans to overhaul the whole structure and, potentially, look to implement a single portal for all complaints across health and social care.

 You can read more about these plans – and the cultural barriers to them – in our special feature on whistleblowing and complaints from pages 24 to 27.

Appearing just after that is an interesting piece on Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust and the financial turnaround there, and how it has tackled a record budget deficit with some external help. It is certainly not out of the woods yet; the Audit Commission has put it on a list of 19 NHS trusts in ‘financial difficulties’, and its proposed reconfiguration of services remains controversial. But it is on the track to improvement, despite having a long way to go, following the dire financial situation that did not come properly to light until 2011-12.

Elsewhere in this edition, we get multiple perspectives on the King’s Fund’s latest report into medical engagement – bluntly, why do so many hospital doctors identify more with their royal college than the trust that employs them? How much does this matter, and what can be done to encourage them to get involved in a leadership capacity, rather than see each trust as a stepping stone to the next? Take a look at pages 20-22.

There’s plenty more to get your teeth stuck into this edition, particularly Professor Paul Corrigan on page 13, Sir John Oldham on page 51, and our look at ethical procurement and what non-NHS providers of public services need to consider on page 54.

If you’re involved in a complicated reconfiguration plan in your local area and are concerned about communicating it to the general public, have a look at the advice on page 64.

Enjoy this edition of the magazine.

Adam Hewitt

Editor