The inquiry into care standards at Stafford Hospital has found staff were to blame for over 1,200 needless patient deaths, but has recommended that no prosecutions be brought. It makes you think the only thing Harold Shipman really did wrong was opening his own practice.

Well, this week there has been more about how the NHS needs to change.  Nurses have been bashed being told that they do not care enough and need to learn how to care.  Seem that those involved in such issues forget just how much nurses do care.  Also in where the NHS gets loads of nurses, i.e. from abroad.  Now, all in the NHS know that it can fail patients.  And that is has all too many times.  But most who work in the NHS are interested in making patients better.  I do think that there is a lot that can be made better, and as those who have read my previous posts will know, I am in favour of the reforms, so long as the NHS is funded properly.  But when Jeremy Hunt talks about improving patient care, he had better remember that the private companies are not interested in that.  He correctly raises concerns about managers who chase targets and forget about patient care.  But a private company in the NHS is interested in money and when it is funded to provide healthcare, it will only be interested in funding the care it is funded for.  Working in the NHS I have seen how private companies work.  The service they provide is great, when they are funded for it.  But while the local hospital will look after the whole patient, private companies will not, as they will only do what they are paid to do and in many cases, will tend to pick the easy patients to see.

Personally, I am not too fussed that private companies pick the easy patients, it makes waiting lists shorter for those who are more complicated (but they may have to wait longer for treatment than those easier cases).  It is a shame though that those who are deemed more complicated tend to be the elderly, those who are overweight and those who have other illnesses.  I do think though that when outcomes between private companies and the NHS are made, that people remember that.

The NHS is great.  It can be made so much better.  Let us hope that this government does that.