Chair of the Care Quality Commission David Prior has used an article in The Daily Telegraph to call for a “culture shift” in the NHS as, according to Prior, “parts of the NHS have developed a culture that doesn’t listen – or worse, that stigmatises and ostracises those who raise concerns or complaints”.
Prior went further to state that the NHS needs major long-term change to deal with the needs of an aging population and increasingly tight budgets, citing measures such as successful hospitals taking over failing hospitals, and ensuring better care outside hospitals. He also called for more competition to drive up standards of care, arguing that further entrants were needed from both the private and volunatary sectors, and a change in the way health services are held to account, arguing that trusts are “blindsided by waiting targets that miss the point, skew priorities and have unintended consequences”.
