The NHS Confederation

The world has indeed has gone stark raving bonkers, maybe that's a slight exaggeration of events; it is however certainly fair to say that the NHS Confederation is a complete waste of space. If you don't believe me then simply have a look at this collection of suggestions from the 2007 NHS Confederation annual conference, it really isn't hard to work out why the NHS is in trouble when the people managing it are a bunch prize idiots. To quote Dr Rant these people really are a fine example of the 'twatterati'. Some of these suggestions really are rather unintentionally funny, however one's laughter can soon turn to tears when one realises that they were unfortunately not intended to be humorous:

"A quality improvement project for junior doctors, Jenny Rusby

Suggest to PMETB that a quality improvement project with rapid cycle and small changes would be more valuable in junior doctor "competency" assessment than "audit". Offer a prize for a completed project with most impact. Junior doctors could be an army of improvers!"

"Create improvement in the system, Carol Culshaw

I think it's very effective (as with the Engaging with Quality initiative to start with a Royal College) and (as with the Safer Patients Initiative to start with an organisation) to create improvement in the system."

"Develop a failure of the year award, Dave Dawes, European Nursing Leadership Foundation

Develop a "failure of the year" award, which celebrates and learns from innovation that doesn't work."

"Governance training in medical schools, Rob Keogh, Guy's Hospital

Implementation of comprehensive governance training in medical schools at our undergraduate level."

"Let the patients speak, Mike Evans, Atherton Evans Association

Let the patients speak. Let the clinicians listen!"

"Patients can make a difference, , Claire Allen, Royal College of Nursing

Making patients believe they can make a difference; acting on their enthusiasm and encouraging participation. Its all about belief and self-belief."

"Value clinicians at the coal face, Anne Howers, Sutton & Merton PCT

Valuing the role of clinicians at the coal face and coordinating their insights into national professional initiatives for young people. "Children are the future - we will not see" - Aynsley Green

We need to ensure investment in young people to improve the availability of future health in our country."

"More engagement with clinicians, Caroline Bollard, East Riding and Yorkshire PCT

To quote David Cameron for the next few years in NHS structure and policy, "Evolution not revolution".

More engagement with clinicians 'bottom up' and patient-centred policies.

The Health Foundation sum up exactly where things are going terribly wrong in the NHS, an organisation that waffles on about improvement and somehow manages to spend 20 million pounds a year on producing nothing more than offensive hot air. It is depressing that this settlement of gas manufacturers are simply too dim to see the great irony that their toothless organisation represents.

It is hard to find the words to describe the sheer lunacy of their extreme and nonsensical approach to health care 'improvement'. Their fundamentalist stance as regards care being completely centred on the patient defies belief and common sense; the doctor-patient relationship is a very complex entity but it is clear that, for it to be functional, the doctor must have more power than merely being a convenient listening device for the patient. If this lot had their way then doctors would never have time to learn basic sciences and subjects like anatomy that are fundamental to becoming a good doctor, they would be forced to endure years of communication skills and clinical governance teaching sessions instead, amazingly this is the way medical education is going; soon medical degrees will contain more teaching in waffling management speak than in areas which actually prepare you for practical doctoring.

Their offensive patronising chatter is rather symptomatic of the general malaise present in the overall management of the NHS today. The banter is of 'patient safety' and 'improvement' but practically they are pouring pound notes onto a bonfire, while creating yet another layer of useless bureaucrats who are happy to work against and stifle genuine progress. If they genuinely engaged with clinicians and believed in bottom-up management, then they would rapidly find that their organisation no longer existed. However as the NHS is run in an inefficient centralised fashion, it is no wonder that these kind of organisations keep springing up from unpleasant state orifices.

My failure of the year would go to the NHS Confederation and the utter hogwash that it represents. However I would not be celebrating this failure as I am not a moron. Doctors should be trained to do their job as doctors and once trained they should be trusted a bit more to get on with it, not forced to endure the incessant meaningless ramblings of these politically correct glossy-pamplet-loving quangopoops. Judging from these 'managers' comments they have about as much idea about working at the coalface as Paris Hilton, but perhaps the NHS confederation is simply a clever trick to massage the unemployment statistics?

My suggestion for the NHS Confederation 2007: cease to exist if you really want 'improvement'.