Hospitals Need To Do More To Improve Care, According To An Inspector
The NHS has been urged to improve their struggling hospitals by the Care Quality Commission's chief inspector.Professor Sir Mike Richards accepts that although some hospitals have recovered well, there are many sites that remain in trouble as they have failed to learn the lessons of mistakes from the past.
The leading health watchdog believes public loyalty is even preventing NHS from acknowledging its problems, as people do not realise that their services can be improved further.
According to Yahoo, he commented: "They haven't realised the world has moved on. It's not as if they are thousands of miles away from civilisation. They can be quite close to other hospitals but they haven't really looked to see what other people are doing."
It is reported that up to 1,200 patients may die every year after being treated by NHS trusts as a result of poor care. This could be a result of neglect, or long waiting times, which are problematic for a number of hospitals.
Jeremy Hunt, secretary of state for health, believes that although there has been vast improvement on waiting times for NHS in the last decade, it continues to be a serious issue.
He said: "When we came to office in 2010 there were a shocking 18,500 people who had been waiting not six months, not nine months but over a year for treatment."
The ambition of the NHS is now to reduce the number of people waiting more than a year for an operation from 1000 to as close to zero as possible. The minister says that it is unacceptable that people are in discomfort and pain for a year due to the NHS not being able to provide them with treatment straight away.
However, Mr Hunt believes the NHS will see more improvements in the future if it continues to lower waiting times in hospitals by targeting patients who have faced longer delays.