25.03.13
NHS Employers publishes response to Francis
Greater staff engagement and time for regulation to mature and develop is necessary to move the NHS forward, NHS Employers has stated.
In its response to the Department of Health on the Francis report, NHS Employers calls for regulators to use information more intelligently and to be more responsive when issues arise. In cases where policy or legislation exists but hasn’t delivered the desired results, the NHS should consider why this is the case rather than immediately creating new policy.
NHS Employers does not recommend creating a national register for healthcare assistants, and instead proposes increased investment into stronger recruitment, selection and development.
Replicating the medical model of revalidation for nursing is not necessary, the organisation adds, and calls for values to be embedded locally to drive cultural change.
Dean Royles, chief executive of the NHS Employers organisation, said: “Making sure patients are our first priority all of the time and in every organisation will require a relentless focus on culture across the whole system and ensuring a more co-ordinated approach to sharing information across organisations to drive up standards. Developing organisational culture will also require locally driven change and engaging staff fully in the process.
“The 290 recommendations within the report span the breadth of the system and show us how complex delivering and managing high quality care is. As each part of the system looks at its own response we need to be careful we don't get sucked into looking at recommendations in isolation and losing sight of the need to focus on culture. In this case we need to keep our sight on the trees not the wood.
“There is a lot of great work in the NHS to take forward but variation within and between organisations is a concern. If we can respond in the right way then we can create an opportunity to really transform the care patients receive and the way we go about doing our work. That is the least we owe to the patients and the vast majority of staff who work tirelessly to deliver the highest standards of care. Success will be that 'Francis' becomes a byword for improvement rather than failure.”
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