Blog

29 june 2010, getting more on target

Board meeting at the hospital today, with some pretty chunky items to discuss amidst the great changes the health service is experiencing. We spent most time though (and for the first time voted) on becoming the first english nhs hospital to introduce free car parking. We also had a lengthy presentation on health and safety, which, although vital, was a questionable use of the whole board's time. Annual risk management training though, is a legal requirement - part of a very broad raft of such requirements. Another, I learned, is the chief executive signing a statement of intent and sending it to all staff. This smacks of some good manager somewhere introducing something, and someone in government thinking that making this a universal requirement will improve safety. Actually, what you need is good managers, to allow them to manage and a robust system of local accountability. Having literally hundreds of central requirements has a big opportunity cost in time and brain power, keeping senior staff from thinking things through for themselves, and also taking away responsibility: "well, I followed the rules !". As they did in mid-staffordshire. I do generally welcome therefore a rolling back of centrally-fixed targets.