John Baron MP presses Health Secretary to focus on outcomes

MP: Outcomes save money and lead to better care

Yesterday in the House of Commons the Health Secretary, Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP, gave a Statement on Sir Gordon Messenger and Dame Linda Pollard’s independent report on leadership in health and social care.

In the Chamber, John asked,

“As a former chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Cancer for ten years, I welcome this review. However, I put it to the Minister that at least part of the problem with waiting times and lists is the fact that only around half of all NHS staff are clinically trained. There is an imbalance there. Following my amendment during the passage of the Health and Care Act 2022, which he accepted, I suggest that one thing that could really help would be to get the NHS to focus more on outcomes such as one-year cancer survival rates, as a means of encouraging earlier diagnosis, and less on processes, which are very management-heavy.”

The Health Secretary responded that he agreed with John.

Afterwards, John said,

“The welter of process targets, to which the health service has been subjected in recent decades, has greatly increased NHS bureaucracy and led to a sprawl of non-medically trained management. Cutting through this red tape and focusing on outcomes – which are what really matter to patients and their families – will improve the NHS’ performance as well as saving money which can be better spent on front-line healthcare.”