Hunt unveils plan to turn around NHS hospitals

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has set out the Government’s plans to help prevent future failures of care and safety at NHS Hospitals.

Following a review by NHS medical director Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, which investigated the quality of care and treatment provided by 14 hospital trusts that are persistent outliers on mortality indicators, Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority have already placed 11 of those Trusts into ‘special measures’.

According to the Health Secretary, ‘It is entirely possible, even likely, that other hospitals will have to go into special measures.’

The new inspection regime unveiled by the Health Secretary will identify more Trusts that need turning around.

Support given to the 11 Trusts already placed into special measures will come from NHS hospitals with the highest standards of patient care and safety.

Each of the 11 Trusts will be partnered with one of the best NHS Trusts in the country in innovative improvement contracts.

‘For too long, patients have had to put up with poor care because it was inconvenient to expose and tackle failure,’ said Hunt.

‘I am committing to total transparency on progress in these hospitals, and to leave no stone unturned in our mission to turn them round.’

Taken from Journal of Paramedic Practice, published 25 September 2013.