The windmills of your mind

doi:10.1136/bmj.39500.446169.1F

BMJ 2008;336:462 (1 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.39500.446169.1F

Letters

Quality failures in the NHS

The windmills of your mind

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The notion that healthcare professionals do not care about qualityis risible. Ham’s illustration of the illusion of finance,finance, finance as the modus operandi of health care showshow badly the politicians who run and manage the NHS appreciatethe issues.¹ Successive "solutions" have been dominated by politicalmeddling—for example, the National Patient Safety Agency.The educational role of the royal colleges in training doctorsdoes not feature at all. Even more alarming is the fact that10% of anything that can go wrong will go wrong, yet 10% ofresources within the NHS or royal colleges are not given overto "patient safety." Does the teaching of a procedure includewhat to do if things go wrong, or, is it presumed that correctteaching will avert a catastrophe?

The notion that other industries are sorted out rather beliesthe complexity of healthcare delivery; so many specialties,so many . . . [Full text of this article]

Jeffrey C McIlwain, consultant, clinical risk management

¹ St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Merseyside L35 5DR

jeff.mcilwain@sthk.nhs.uk