Press release: NHS Confederation announces results of listening exercise

22 May 2002

Speaking at her first NHS Confederation annual conference and exhibition in Harrogate today, chief executive Dr Gill Morgan outlined the principal issues and agenda of NHS management.

Dr Morgan who has undertaken a listening exercise across the UK in the last three said, "The message I hear is unequivocal: give us some stability, set clear and simple targets and give us the space to deliver what we know needs to be done."

She continued: "The new money will increase pressure for delivery and make it very hard for politicians to devolve, despite their expressed wish to do so. It will take very steady nerves to create space and allow management to get on with delivery without increasing targets and intensifying performance management."

Seven clear issues from NHS management have emerged:

• there are still not enough people and skills in the system to make the delivery of a modern service a reality
• there is a need to explore new ways to deliver comprehensive yet safe services to communities because of concerns about capacity and configuration
• there are real concerns about the effectiveness of the performance management system
• there is an urgent need to think in "whole systems" particularly across health and social services
• there is an urgent need to reduce the financial "stretch" already in the NHS rather than use all the new money to deliver increasingly challenging targets 
• there is worry about further fragmentation that could undermine the public health effort 
• the service is weary and media perception and reporting is having a negative effect on staff morale.
  

At the same time, she set out two personal perspectives on the "real agenda" for NHS management:

• to lead and inspire cultural change as well as manage and administer effectively 
• to be more sensitive and responsive to the needs and wants of individual patients and their carers and genuinely work to improve the patient experience
  

Dr Morgan said: "We must lead and inspire cultural change, as well as manage and administer the service effectively," she said. "Only if we do so will the NHS be politically sustainable in the face of the concerted challenge."

Ends

Notes for editors

1. The NHS Confederation's annual conference is taking place in Harrogate between 22 and 24 May 2002.
2. The NHS Confederation represents the organisations that make up the NHS. Our members include the majority of NHS trusts, primary care trusts and health authorities in England; trusts, health authorities and local health groups in Wales; trusts and NHS boards in Scotland; and health and social services trusts and boards in Northern Ireland.
   

Contact details

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