Hospitals 'are wrongly assessing their own performance'
08 Mar 2010
New research has revealed that hospitals could be misleading the
public by rating their own standards of care.
A BBC Panorama investigation using data from the Care Quality
Commission (CQC) found that 60 per cent of the hospitals inspected
in England had not been accurately assessing their performance,
rating themselves as 'good' when standards of care were in fact
lacking and seen as poor by the CQC.
Some 17 out of 28 hospitals had wrongly assessed themselves, with
two misreporting their performance in three out of four categories
when double-checked by the organsiation.
Six hospitals were found to be lacking in two standards when they
were double-checked.
Professor Brian Jarman from NHS analyst Dr Foster Intelligence,
said the new report could leave the NHS open to allegations that it
is being deliberately misleading and pushing incidents involving
clinical negligence under the carpet.
"My view is that patients do not realise that hospitals are
self-assessing. I could hardly believe it until I read it," he
added.
This comes after Civitas warned of significant cutbacks in
hospitals after it found that the health service has gone over its
budget by GBP 130 million.
The Department of Health rules state that trusts must not enter the
new financial year in the red, so many institutions are considering
cutting back on services.
Some GPs have been encouraged to see if "symptoms resolve
themselves" before referring patients with problems like skin lumps
and uterine conditions to hospital, while some hospitals are
considering closing A&E facilities.
