Privatisation and the Patient-Led NHS

In a flurry of posting in the blogosphere, many people including Dr Grumble, The Jobbing Doctor and theNHSiskillingus have commented, from their own varied perspectives, on the recent proposal to privatise the management of underperforming NHS Trusts.  Last week, in a related speech,  Dr Jonathan Fielden, chairman of the BMA’s consultants committee demanded that the Government stops meddling and hands back the NHS to patients and those who work in it.   

All very well of course but patients are rarely in a position have the NHS ‘handed back’ to them. They’re ill, vulnerable and frankly got more important things to do. And leaving it all with the docs still less the managers doesn’t seem like the right answer either.

 

So what’s to do?

Well at least part of the answer has to be to get with the web. The internet may be revolutionising banking and tearing the travel and music industries to bits, but so far the NHS — that great dowager duchess of the public services — has sailed on relatively unperturbed.

 

At Patient Opinion we’ve managed to learn that personal stories can have a real impact.  Just by sharing experiences, NHS organisations can be encouraged to make positive changes like providing information for maternity patients and acknowledgement of concerns.

 But we’ve also learnt that the technology is much less than half the answer. To get real change you have to get your hands dirty and help busy staff down on the front line learn how to use these new tools, to get confident writing for the web and help them begin to understand that in this media savvy age a great response  to a critical story will get you far more credit with Joe Public than any amount of fancy marketing.