Maintain pressure on reforms to protect NHS'Better quality care will save money', says new health minister
Increasing the quality of care the NHS provides will have the knock-on effect of saving money, claims new health minister Mike O’Brian.
‘The challenge today is to raise the quality of service,’ he said yesterday, speaking for the first time as a member of the government’s health team.
‘This is not about targets, but about encouraging a more innovative and high quality health service,’ he told delegates at an event organised by the think-tank Reform in London.
‘Improving the quality of care the NHS provides, and getting things right first time, will save money as well as provide better treatment for patients. The patient experience is improved when they don’t suffer from complications or delay and when its when things go wrong that they become expensive to put right,’ said Mr O’Brian.
‘Higher quality care will reduce costs, and will lead to a more efficient NHS that is able to successfully meet the challenges of the current economic climate,’ he added.
Mr O’Brian’s comments came immediately before the NHS Confederation published a gloomy report on the future health of NHS finances, which predict a £15bn funding shortfall over the next 10 years.
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Readers' comments (1)
George Kuchanny | 11-Jun-2009 5:55 pm
Mr O'Brian is correct. The following comment may prove difficult for some healthcare professionals to read. Unfortunately it happened and can be verified fully. My wife suffered 15 life-threatening clinical errors within 11 days of care. All were avoidable, some were clearly inexcusably stupid. She survived all of these only to then be deliberately killed by a nurse and doctor acting in collusion. This happened nine years ago. In the following years this event has cost the taxpayer a staggeringly large amount of money and is set to continue costing us all for the forseeable future. Enough to pay for the care of a large number of pepole needing expensive and complex medical intervention. Far more so far, than my most pessimistic guess. How did this come about? It started because a major hospital closed an entire specialist department which included it's own recovery ward, ITU and consultants for a late spring Bank Holiday - leaving my wife's admittance and care to people who had very little knowledge about her care and treatment. Mr O'Brian is absolutely and incontrivertibly right.
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