25.05.12
Pick and choose
Of all the recommendations the Nursing Quality Care Forum has made to government, the one concerning patients rating hospitals over whether they would be happy to have their friends or family treated there has been accepted.
While the publication of this rating may help to drive improvements in hospitals, it could be argued that more pertinent recommendations could have been implemented.
A review of staffing levels, or the need to ensure new recruits to the nursing profession actually care about the patients they will be responsible for, could deliver a better service than patient surveys.
Although the forum was set up by ministers concerned about the quality of nursing care, action since then suggests that the Government is only willing to endorse changes already on its agenda.
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