27.03.13
Ban failing managers from NHS – Hunt responds to Francis
Failing hospitals will be named and shamed by a new Chief Inspector of Hospitals, health secretary Jeremy Hunt has announced in the Government’s response to the Francis Inquiry.
Managers responsible for failures will be barred from working in the NHS, he said, in the Department’s 82-page response to Francis’s 290 recommendations.
A final decision on new legal sanctions against staff will depend on the outcome of a patient safety review, conducted by global expert Professor Donald Berwick, a former member of the Obama administration in the USA as head of its Medicaid and Medicare systems. He will report before parliament's summer recess in July.
Hospitals will be monitored as part of a system using aggregated performance ratings based on Ofsted’s system in education, and ‘gagging clauses’, which can prevent sacked NHS staff from publicly raising concerns or risk losing their severance pay, will be banned.
Nurses are to have their performance subjected to regular reviews in a process akin to revalidation for doctors, finally introduced at the end of last year. Trainee nurses will also be required to spend up to a year focusing on basic care such as washing and feeding patients, amid concerns that some had become disconnected and lost their compassion.
Nurses will also be specially trained to treat the elderly and a Chief Inspector of Social Care will be appointed. The Government’s response stated that healthcare assistants (HCAs) will be subject to a new code of practice and minimum training standards, but not legal registration and regulation.
The CQC will be responsible for the new tougher inspection regime – where inspections could last for up to a month – but it will be down to Monitor to put right NHS failures, Hunt announced.
A review by the NHS Confederation will also be undertaken on how to reduce the bureaucratic burden on frontline staff and NHS providers by a third.
Hunt said: “The events at Stafford Hospital were a betrayal of the worst kind. A betrayal of the patients, of the families, and of the vast majority of NHS staff who do everything in their power to give their patients the high quality, compassionate care they deserve.
“The health and care system must change. We cannot merely tinker around the edges – we need a radical overhaul with high quality care and compassion at its heart. Today I am setting out an initial response to Robert Francis’ recommendations. But this is just the start of a fundamental change to the system.
“I can pledge that every patient will be treated in a hospital judged on the quality of its care and the experience of its patients. They will be cared for in a place with a culture of zero harm, by highly trained staff with the right values and skills. And if something should go wrong, then those mistakes will be admitted, the patient told about them and steps taken to rectify them with proper accountability.
“I and the chairs of key organisations involved in care have pledged to do this and make our health and care system the best and safest in the world.”
Francis said that although ministers had not accepted all his 290 recommendations, “the Government's statement indicates its determination to make positive changes to the culture of the NHS, in part by adopting some of my recommendations and in part through other initiatives”.
(Image of Robert Francis QC: David Jones / PA Archive / Press Association Images)
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