Maintain pressure on reforms to protect NHS
Ruth Spellman
London
As chief executive of the Chartered Management Institute, Ruth Spellman OBE leads the drive to encourage greater focus on the high level skills needed to build UK competitiveness and productivity. She is also responsible for the Institute’s campaign to ensure 50 per cent of managers are professionally qualified by 2020.
Prior to joining the Institute in June 2008, Ruth served as the first female chief executive of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE). She also spent 8 years as chief executive of Investors in People UK (IIPUK) where she helped raise the profile of the employer-led organisation across 27 countries. During this period she was appointed Chair of the Skills body for the Voluntary Sector, in a non-executive role and was a non-executive director of Thompsons solicitors.
As HR Director for the NSPCC, a role she held for 7 years, Ruth was responsible for HR strategy, change management, resourcing strategy, employee communications, external communications a
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Comment on: One in 10 hospital nurses asked to fiddle waiting time figures
Fiddling waiting time figures in A&E departments is another example of what staff can be driven to, in cases where targets are put before people. This latest report suggests that, in some cases, the pressure NHS staff are under to meet the four hour waiting time target imposed by the Department of Health, is leading to a rushed job. The situation is compounded by the increased pressure on all public services to deliver, as budgets grow ever tighter. Too much attention on targets can stop people focusing on what is really important. It is the responsibility of managers to look after people (in this case, staff and patients) first, targets second. Poor management and ambitious targets encourage staff to cut corners. In the case of healthcare professionals, the mad dash to meet targets is to the detriment of adequate and appropriate levels of patient care. The NHS is well-known for its target-driven culture, yet surely this latest story could be the one that motivates managers to take decisive action?
