NHS Meltdown: UK Hospitals Fail to Obey Safety Orders

On and on it goes, where it stops, nobody knows: Now UK hospitals are being accused of putting patients’ lives at risk by failing to comply with safety orders from central control. From the story:

Hospitals were accused tonight of putting patients’ lives at unnecessary risk after research revealed they were failing to comply with NHS orders designed to prevent deaths from mistakes involving drugs, surgery or equipment. Information released by the Department of Health after a freedom of information request showed that hospitals were not complying with safety alerts issued by the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA). The NPSA’s chairman, Lord Patel of Dunkeld, told the Guardian that the behaviour of the trusts was unacceptable and endangered the health of patients. “It’s not good enough,” he said. “What’s the point of us developing these alerts if they don’t pay any attention to them? Alerts are produced to reduce risk and hopefully avoid many deaths, so not to implement them to me is alarming. If they aren’t implemented then they run the risk of harm occurring and the danger will continue.”

Centralized management doesn’t work. It becomes too bureaucratic and ossified.  If we can break through the current Obamacare impasse here in the USA and reform the reform rather than force one of the current bills down an unwilling public’s throat, we need to take that lesson to heart.