02.10.17
Model of hospital care stuck in 60s, warns chief inspector
The NHS’s hospital care is stuck in the 20th century and not fit for the modern era, the CQC’s chief inspector of hospitals has warned.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Professor Ted Baker, who was appointed to the position at the end of July, said that: “The model of care we have got is still the model we had in the 1960s and 70s.”
He went on to blame a lack of funding that has led to a historic lack of investment in the sector and a drop in the quality of care patients were receiving.
“One of the things I regret is that 15 or 20 years ago, when we could see the change in the population, the NHS did not change its model of care,” Prof Baker explained.
"It should have done it then - there was a lot more money coming in but we didn't spend it all on the right things. We didn't spend it on transformation of the model of care."
He also said that too many hospitals had normalised “wholly unsatisfactory” arrangements in their working practices and called for immediate action to improve safety in A&E before the start of what will be a very difficult winter.
Prof Baker also raised issues with the culture of “learned helplessness” that had sprung up in England’s emergency departments, echoing a King’s Fund warning last week by saying staff “pile the corridor full of patients.”
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