Will Brown change a thing?

According to the HSJ amongst others Mr Brown is going to use less of the independent sector when he becomes prime minister. He has apparently expressed sceptisim about how much the private sector can give choice and quality of services.

 Good and perhaps we will see the end of large scale expansion into ideas such as social enterprise and the current vogue for encouraging nurses not to care or do their job but to become “entrepreneurs”. This whole idea smacks to me of desperation. First we had leadership initiatives which were supposed to transform nurses and encourage best practice everywhere and now we have the emergence of a market for creating entreprenuership.

 What exactly is meant by this term? I dont think many  people have the faintest clue. Do we really need or want people within the healthcare system who do everything differently? Whatever happened to getting the basics right? OK so it isnt sexy, it doesn’t sound like Richard Branson and people from the Apprentice are going to save us and reform and modernise services but frankly it is what the service is crying out for.

Nurses across the country cant get things such as stopping people wearing their uniform too and from work right. Patients and visitors wander around hospitals looking for direction whilst staff busliy ignore them. Patients want a district nurse or widwife who sorts out their care efficiently and effectively and doesnt shape services or create a new vision.

Is this a role for an entreprenuer? Not really it is boring to most people but can mean the difference between a person getting a five star health service and something no one really understands or perhaps even matters. There is always room for improving services but the patient should be at the centre of such changes and the crucial relationship between patient and nurse should be where improvements to services should be focusing their efforts.