Measuring up the NHS

doi:10.1136/bmj.b703

Published 25 February 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b703
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b703

Feature

Quality of Care

Measuring up the NHS

Nigel Hawkes, freelance journalist

¹ London

Few would argue with Ara Darzi’s vision of high qualitycare for all but agreeing on how to assess it is much more difficult,Nigel Hawkes reports

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

nigel.hawkes1@btinternet.com

For the NHS, quality is the crock of gold that lies at the endof the rainbow. Somehow it is always just over the horizon:an aspiration frequently articulated but never quite realised.Writing in the BMJ in 1988,¹ George Godber remarked of the NHS:"It still does not have inbuilt review of quality." When theformer chief medical officer died earlier this month at theage of 100, his judgment remained largely true.

Quality has repeatedly been promised. In Frank Dobson’s1997 white paper The New NHS: Modern, Dependable, we were told:"The new NHS will have quality at its heart . . . Every patientwho is treated in the NHS wants to know that they can rely onreceiving high quality care when they need it. Every part ofthe NHS, and everyone who works in it, should take responsibilityfor working to improve quality." . . . [Full text of this article]

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