NHS staff told to show sick more compassion

DOCTORS and nurses in the NHS were today accused by health experts of not showing enough compassion towards patients.

The claim, which is likely to infuriate health workers, was made by the influential think tank The King's Fund.

"I have very little doubt that we've seen a deterioration in the level of compassion that is shown by staff to patients," said the fund's chief executive, Niall Dickson, a former BBC social affairs editor. He added: "It's to do with staff facing very difficult situations - because patients are sicker and hospital stays are shorter - rather than them all turning into nasty people."

However, he called for urgent action to change the attitudes of health workers towards their patients.

"If we can't get compassion into our healthcare, the system is failing. It's as fundamental as that," he said.

"The board of every hospital should be looking at this as one of their top priorities - what is it like for someone who's coming in to be treated, and how can we improve that experience?"

The King's Fund is running a programme to try to foster more compassion in hospitals and other health care establishments. It is introducing groups at several NHS hospitals in which staff can talk about care they believe they have struggled to deliver.

The Patients Association's head of special projects and research, Vanessa Bourne, said: "Compassion is not an extra, it is an essential of nursing care. It comes in many forms: privacy, dignity and, above all, caring for others as you would wish to be cared for yourself."

The Government is now seeking to improve ways of measuring and delivering compassion in the NHS.

Health minister Lord Darzi's review of the health service in England has led to a new focus on the quality of patient care. Compassion is mentioned as a core value in the draft NHS constitution and patients views will play a greater role in rating NHS trusts.

Meanwhile, GPs' leaders today denounced plans to allow patients to comment on the performance of their family doctor on an NHS website.

Laurence Buckman, chairman of the British Medical Association's GPs committee, said: "A website on which people can slander or praise irresponsibly is the wrong approach.

"If you want to survive as a GP you will encourage patients to vote for you. It will be rather like Strictly Come Dancing."

Under the plans, people will be invited to post comments about their experiences of GP practices on the website NHS Choices, possibly from next summer. Remarks will be moderated to ensure nothing defamatory is said and individual GPs will not be rated or identified.

The scheme will follow the introduction of patient comments about hospitals on NHS Choices last April.

Health minister Ben Bradshaw hopes the consumer feedback will work for healthcare in a similar way to Trip Advisor for the travel industry or Amazon for the book trade.

"I would never think of going on holiday without cross-referencing at least two guide books and using Trip Advisor," he said. "We need to do something similar in healthcare.

"I can already learn a lot from the comments of people about a type of treatment or a hospital. We need to extend the service to cover GPs."