Religiously clapping the NHS during lockdown may have resulted in ‘dangerous’ results as it was shielded from necessary criticism, according to the Health Ombudsman. The Mail has more.
Rebecca Hilsenrath called for a revamping of the health service’s culture as she warned treating it like a “national religion” could contribute to complacency and failure to reform where necessary.
The Ombudsman’s office has submitted its report as evidence for an investigation of the NHS which is due to be published in September.
It also detailed a 50% rise in complaints about the NHS to the Ombudsman since Covid hit the U.K.
New Health Secretary Wes Streeting ordered the investigation, led by Professor Lord Darzi, when he took up his new role after Labour’s July election victory, as he declared the NHS is “broken”.
Ms. Hilsenrath told the Telegraph “no organisation should be beyond constructive criticism”, adding that she thinks the U.K.’s perception of it’s health service has shifted since the “gratitude” shown during the pandemic.
She drew attention to a failure by the NHS to implement the recommendations of inquiries or listen to the grievances of those it lets down, meaning it is not learning as it should from fatal mistakes.
Maternity was cited as a particular area of increasing concern, with complaints regarding it doubling in a year.
In the 2023/24 period, the Health Ombudsman received almost 27,500 complaints about NHS England – two thirds of which were at least partially upheld – roughly double that of 2011/12, and up nearly 50% on 2020/21.
However, Ms. Hilsenrath did push back against the Health Secretary’s assertion that the NHS is broken, despite acknowledging a “lower degree of happiness with services”.
She said she did not want to detract from the “brilliant things” happening in some areas of the NHS, whilst being able to have a mature conversation about its shortcomings.
For example, two thirds of maternity units have been deemed by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to be inadequate or requiring improvement for safety.
Ms. Hilsenrath also emphasised that reform of the NHS should not focus on changing its funding, but the way it works, saying that changes needed are about the “culture” rather than its financing.
“When big things go wrong and terrible things happen you get the NHS saying ‘never again’, but actually it’s just not true,” she said.
The Ombudsman was speaking against a backdrop of a report finding a “series of errors, omissions and misjudgments” in the treatment of Nottingham killer Valdo Calocane – who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia three years before stabbing Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates last year.
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