Margaret McCartney: Let’s have a report on what resources the NHS needs

The Care Quality Commission’s chief inspector of hospitals, Edward Baker, has told the Daily Telegraph, “We need a model of care that is fit for the 21st century and the population as it is now.”1

Baker has written to English hospital chief executives,2 who are doubtless feeling the shivers of winter. He explains the rules to them: people who arrive in ambulances should be timed from when they arrive in the car park, not the emergency department; “corridor care” should not be normal care; and staff should be led effectively and consistently.

“For many trusts,” he writes, “their greatest risks to patient safety are likely to be in their emergency departments.” In due …