‘Punishment beatings’ cause NHS leaders to hide problems, says Streeting

A political culture “geared around sparing reputations” rather than being honest about the NHS’s failings has led to “backside covering” by senior managers trying to avoid “punishment beatings”, the health and care secretary has said.

Wes Streeting also told the health and social care committee yesterday that these cultural failings had contributed to a situation in which “on pretty much every front, care in this country is not as good as our counterparts”.

To address this, Mr Streeting said he wanted to set a culture which was “honest about the NHS’s failings”, rather than one that is “geared around sparing political blushes”.

He said the culture of the NHS is “set at the top” by the health secretary, which is why he has labelled the health service as “broken” in a bid to set a tone of honesty about its failings.

Mr Streeting said: “A political culture geared around sparing political blushes and reputations of governments is one that very quickly bleeds into backside-covering by senior leaders, thinking that if they acknowledge problems within their organisation that they are going to find themselves in news headlines or [receiving] a punishment beating by the secretary of state via the telephone.

“It also persists into a culture right down into the frontline where patient safety isn’t taken seriously [and] where whistleblowers are silenced in the most extreme cases. And you end up in a situation where, on pretty much every front, care in this country is not as good as our counterparts.”

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Source: HSJ, 19 December 2024