Joining the dots

"Rather than looking at harm and deaths that occur to patients as one off events, we should look at connections and similarities, the common causes, and use them as a source for learning and action just as the airline industry has done"

These words of wisdom came from the CMO, Sir Liam Donaldson, a man who loves to compare the airline industry to the NHS. There are certainly many similarities such as the low quality food, the cancellations, the dirty toilets, the long queues, the lack of local services et al.

However I wonder what Sir Liam will try to learn from the pandemonium at Heathrow terminal 5. Is a new initiative of putting the possessions of patients onto conveyor belts and watching them drift into oblivion about to come into place?

The only thing that one can learn from the airline industry is that monopolies, whether run by the state or private corporations, can become rather inefficient and useless at providing the service that they are meant to. We all need a kick up the backside from time to time, and that's why it's so important that the government has the balls to do this to both state-run services and those run by private firms. It's a great shame the government has no balls, as they seem to be firmly in the grip of the CBI and big business.