Urgently needed: leadership and mutual respect

Improvement within the NHS—or any health service—will have to be delivered by the staff. No amount of rhetoric, clever policies, threats, or even extra resources will improve a service if the staff are demotivated. Three editorials in this week's BMJ look at the importance of staff and how they behave.

BMJ readers (most of them doctors) know that many doctors are fed up, but they may be more surprised by an editorial on the despair of health service managers (p 1262). These managers are used to being unloved by the public …