Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Views & Reviews If I Ruled the NHS

Ban management consultants

BMJ 2015; 350 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h28 (Published 15 January 2015) Cite this as: BMJ 2015;350:h28

Rapid Response:

Spot on, Max! No one will be surprised if management consultants dislike your suggestions; if they did, it might even cause concern.

Your template for an NHS recovery plan is probably supported by the majority of clinicians and not a few NHS managers. I have considerable respect for the many able NHS managers but they need to get back to their core role of helping clinicians to provide a good service and stop being unwilling agents for nonsensical political schemes.

My additional suggestion for a more rational way of running the NHS is to take it out of party politics and place the strategic management with a cross-party commission with elected lay and professional members (not the usual 'great and good') as well as politicians without vested interests.

You are right to call for more money for mental health services but it might be good to see these brought back together with other medical services geographically, professionally and managerially. The perception of them being something 'other' and outside conventional medicine could be contributing to the neglect.

Competing interests: No competing interests

17 January 2015
David Levine
Retired Consultant Physician
Sennen, Cornwall TR19 7AX