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High level of scrutiny is crushing innovation in NHS, say hospital bosses

BMJ 2016; 353 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i2701 (Published 12 May 2016) Cite this as: BMJ 2016;353:i2701
  1. Gareth Iacobucci
  1. The BMJ

NHS hospital bosses have warned that a culture of bullying from “oppressive” regulators has been harming innovation efforts and motivating experienced leaders to leave the NHS.

The warnings came in a new report by the health policy think thank the King’s Fund and NHS Providers, the membership organisation for providers of NHS services. In the report 12 NHS chief executives who were either leaving or had recently left the health service were interviewed.1

While interviewees spoke positively about making a difference to patients and staff, the report said that “the sense of pressure and constraint, in some cases bordering on bullying, is also palpable.”

A number of chief executives said that scrutiny levels had worsened during recent years and warned that pressure from the many system regulators was harming attempts to innovate.

In the report Mark Newbold, a former hospital doctor turned …

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