NHS Health Bill set to fail – says Quality Institute

The Health Bill, currently reaching its final stages in parliament places huge emphasis on quality and comes as the NHS faces significant budget cuts over the next few years: overcoming these twin challenges is only possible with a clear focus on quality management – according to the CQI. 

“In its current format, the Bill includes a blanket requirement for healthcare providers to produce so-called Quality Accounts – without any clear direction as to what information is worth collecting and why. This can sound awfully like the discredited targets-driven culture under another name,” says Vincent Desmond, head of development at the CQI.

“The only way to introduce both radical improvements in service delivery and substantial cost cuts is to embed a planned and systematic approach to quality at every level of the NHS. Such an approach must focus on clinicians, management and support staff working together to make sure that services are provided right first time, that systems are simplified and waste is eliminated from the system.”

There is nothing new about a quality management approach, which is practiced widely throughout the private sector. The cost reductions and improvements in service will only occur in the NHS, however, if there are enough trained quality professionals to apply the principles: establishing systems to measure relevant data and design a collaborative working environment.

“There are areas in the Health Service where proper quality initiatives have led to really significant improvements,” continues Desmond, “but the government needs to realise that it cannot simply issue commands from the top and expect the approach to be understood or competently practiced throughout the NHS.

“The next few years will be tough in the Health Service. While the government is quite right to emphasise the importance of quality, there is simply no point in producing the headlines if there is no understanding of what is actually involved, if it is not implemented systematically, and if there is not a serious commitment at all levels to quality management training.”

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Notes to editors
About the CQI:  The CQI is the only chartered professional body dedicated entirely to quality. With over 11,000 individual and company members it provides the support and learning to improve business.

The CQI’s vision is to place quality at the heart of every organisation and exists to help make business better.

It does this in a number of ways: by offering training and qualification, by promoting the benefits of quality generally throughout the UK and international marketplace and specifically to government and other authorities, by being an active and vocal advocate of quality, by developing and disseminating quality knowledge and practices and through the competent quality professional who are its members.

The CQI believes that quality approaches are a fundamental prerequisite for sustainable business where survival and success require innovation in product and service, combined with reduction in cost and a socially responsible approach.

Press enquiries should be directed to Anna Hern or Martinee Reid at Ridgemount PR, 020 8943 9349 email anna.hern@ridgemountpr.co.uk.