NHS: Patient Targets

Baroness Wall of New Barnet Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd June 2010 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, the noble Lord is absolutely right. I believe that the message that he wants sent has been sent by the NHS chief executive in his letter to NHS bodies. It is certainly a message that the Government want to send. Timeliness is important. A great deal has been achieved. We do not want to squander that, but we think that clinicians should now be given the responsibility to prioritise patients and treatments for themselves, not have central performance management dictated from above.

[Baroness Wall of New Barnet]

Does the noble Earl agree that it would be appropriate for hospitals such as Barnet and Chase Farm to carry on with our internal stretch targets, which we do not declare anywhere, but which ensure that our patients are aware that it is a good hospital to go to? They are not arbitrary—trust me, they are not; they are real—and they make a big difference.

[Earl Howe]

I have always drawn—and I think that my ministerial colleagues do as well—the distinction between targets that are useful for internal management purposes and for patient decision-making and targets that are micromanaged from Whitehall. There is a distinct utility in the kind of targets that the noble Baroness is talking about because, as she knows, they are often very good proxies for outcomes.