We welcome your letters and e-mails, whether in response to items in Public Agenda or as a way of sharing your own insights and experiences with other readers. We are particularly keen to learn of examples of good practice from which others may benefit. Letters and e-mails may be edited. Please e-mail us at: agenda@thetimes.co.uk, or write to Public Agenda, The Times, 1 Pennington Street, London E98 1TT
NHS managers are subject to scrutiny
THE BMA’s Jonathan Fielden is wrong to suggest that managers in the health service are not currently regulated (Is it time to regulate managers, Feb 5). The naming and shaming of a chief executive or other senior managers by the Healthcare Commission, the Health Ombudsman or even by a Secretary of State for Health demonstrates that there are drastic sanctions in place to be used against managers who do not meet the highest standards. Reputations can be ruined in a trice and that is a powerful deterrent for the majority always to strive for excellence.
Healthcare managers are accountable to their boards, the local communities they serve, Parliament and subject to the scrutiny of the media too. However, it is true that there is not a register from which failing managers can be removed. Those tempted to employ anyone for their management “expertise” must always thoroughly check track records before they sign on the dotted line, whether that external support is being brought in to work inside NHS, independent or voluntary sector settings.
In the end the best interest of patients is served when managers and clinicians share a common purpose to deliver excellent healthcare. This will never make headlines, but happily, it is what happens for the vast majority of the time. Stuart Bain president, Institute of Healthcare Management
Advertisement
Endemic poor management
OVER the years I have delivered courses to top managers from government and the NHS. While most have skills in finance, marketing, policy, and so on, few were versed in the nuts and bolts of making things work. Thus we get falling productivity, salami cuts instead of better value when money is tight, and headlines about operational failure.
Poor management has been a well-researched problem in the UK since the late 19th century and that highlights the shifts in thinking needed to ensure the better management of human and material resources in future. Clive Bone, Bideford, Devon
Advertisement
Flawed population stats
I COULDN’T agree more with the view of Sukhvinder Stubbs on official population statistics (Interview, Jan 27); they are out of date and do not reflect the true numbers of people now living in many local authority areas. Government uses these figures to allocate funding to councils to deliver public services. The result is pressure on funding for children’s and housing services.
Council chiefs have identified community cohesion as an area where the sector needs to concentrate its efforts. The Local Government Association (LGA) has launched Putting People First, a campaign which will focus its work on five main areas, including one specifically on how better to build diverse cohesive communities. Councils strive to build places where people of all ages, faiths and ethnic backgrounds can thrive. Sir Simon Milton, chairman, LGA
The tender trap
Advertisement
YOUR article (GPs find no tender mercy, Feb 5) cites Pulse magazine, which incorrectly said that my practice had been put up for tender under Alternative Provider Medical Services. This is not so.
I am in a primary care trust-owned building that they accept is “not fit for purpose” and wanted to apply for funds to help to build a healthy living centre, a local one-stop-health premises with an emphasis on lifestyle changes and preventative health, but have been unable to get any information on the tendering procedure for this. Dr Chris Udenze, Nottingham
Tough on benefit fraud
THE Audit Alert (Feb 5) on the National Audit Office report on the Department for Work and Pension’s (DWP) progress in tackling benefit fraud failed to do justice to either the report or to what has been achieved. The NAO’s conclusion was that the DWP has a well-defined and successful strategy for tackling benefit fraud which has seen total losses more than halve since 2001.
Advertisement
Through our new campaigns and even tougher enforcement action we will ensure that those criminals who continue to try to defraud the taxpayer are dealt with. James Plaskitt, MP, AntiFraud Minister, DWP