NHS Governance
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The present governance of the NHS is wrong. Each trust has financial duties, which often conflict with national service standards. The ways that each trust finds of resolving financial difficulties are often damaging to patients and increase costs of clearing waiting lists later. The knowledge of front line staff is so heavily filtered by the hierarchical structure that it has little influence on national policy, which is determined more and more by political favourites who have no relevant knowledge or experience and often promote untried doctrines. Local managers (with some honourable exceptions) enthusiastically promote the latest version of government policy as though their future livelihood depended on it. Trust boards usually have little interest in basing policy on public views and regard consultation on proposals as a hurdle rather than a real influence. When money is tight, services are sometimes cut with no consultation at all. This section focuses on how the NHS is governed at present, how the governance is changing, and what is wrong with the governance. |
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Sheila
Porter-Williams |