The harm in the NHS

Phil Hammond and Andrew Bousfield have a site medicalHARM. They write that

We think that in order to do no harm, first you have to count the harm.

On the right is a link to their latest stories.

As they say in the current Private Eye

Healthcare is an industry that causes significant harm while bringing enormous benefits. Overall, one in 10 patients are harmed by their healthcare; but if you're sick and over 75, the risk rises to 1 in 3.

Any other industry would be shut down with such an appalling safety record; but healthcare has an ingrained culture of denial. Errors are hidden, rather than owned up to; and many more pass unnoticed because nobody bothers to pick them up.

The cases discussed in Private Eye show managements which are unaccountable, usually safe in the huge fortress that is the NHS and readily using taxpayers' money to protect themselves, sometimes at the expense of medical staff and - far more importantly - patients.

A review in 2009 showed that NHS organisations were subject to 35 different regulators, auditors, inspectorates and accreditation agencies that demanded information from the various parts of the system.

The NHS is too big to be managed, and too big to be accountable.

Politicians have no chance of managing this vast empire effectively, especially as its commanding heights are staffed by managers who have risen from within the fortress.

It is too big and too powerful to be accountable. As the Private Eye report shows, even recommendations from expensive public enquiries do not get implemented. The empire is too vast to be changed quickly and effectively, and its capacity for inertia overwhelms pressures from outside.

No amount of changes at the top will ever ensure that the NHS as an organisation becomes responsive and patient-focused. It's just too big.

That's why the NHS has to be broken up.