RCN Calls For Patient Driven, Not Cost-Driven Targets In The NHS, UK

Main Category: Public Health
Also Included In: Nursing / Midwifery
Article Date: 29 Apr 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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The NHS is too focused on keeping down costs at the expense of quality patient care, according to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). Today at its annual Congress, the RCN will be calling for a new era of targets and health reform that are care driven not cost driven.

In his speech to Congress later today, Dr Peter Carter, Chief Executive & General Secretary of the RCN will say: "It's time to shift the balance away from the target culture back to quality care. Right now there are too many restrictive targets, too many restructures; too much reform and too much cost cutting.

"We need to stop squeezing care out of the health equation and concentrate on what really counts for patients and nurses. We've invested lots of money in faster care - now is the time to invest in quality care."

The overwhelming majority of care provided by the NHS is safe, but the RCN believes the ambition now must be to drive up patients' experience from a 'safe' to a 'high quality' service. To do this, the RCN is calling for a re-appraisal of the current target culture. In particular, the RCN wants to see a new set of indicators of quality care that include patient satisfaction, complaints, standards of cleanliness, infection rates, food, drug errors, communication and dignity. These Key Care Quality Indicators (KCQIs) should be agreed for use wherever NHS services are provided.

More on the RCN's policy themes at RCN Congress.

Royal College of Nursing