Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Tory health chief admits it could take years to change NHS culture

by Personnel Today 9 Mar 2004
by Personnel Today 9 Mar 2004

Tim Yeo, shadow secretary of state for public services, health &
education, has admitted that it would take until at least 2010 to make the
cultural shift among civil servants that would be necessary to make the health service
more effective.

Speaking exclusively to Personnel Today, Yeo said central government must
give decision- making powers back to management and health professionals to
overcome the recruitment and retention crisis in the NHS.

He said medical professionals and management in the NHS were being stifled
by the intrusion of Whitehall into their working lives.

"There is a crisis in morale among health professionals, which results
from the extent to which ministers have tried to manage the NHS and have imposed
literally hundreds of targets," Yeo said.

But he believes it will take another parliamentary term to convince
politicians and servants to take a step back.

"Very often the civil servant’s role has been to exercise control, so
there would have to be a cultural shift," he said. "If you take a
four or five year view, then it can be [achieved]."

The latest statistics show that, in nursing alone, more than 30,000 staff
left the NHS last year and that 40 per cent of primary care trusts are facing
severe recruitment problems.

Yeo said the key to retention was improving morale and motivation through
deregulation, so that staff had a sense of being in control of their own jobs
and had ownership of the policies they followed.

"Hardly anyone operating at the coalface really has the sort of
discretion they need to make the best of the cash that is going in," he
said. "They’ve got to keep looking over their shoulders at directives
coming from Whitehall – it is a very demotivating thing for a professional to
experience."

He said deregulation would offset the lure of greater pay on offer to health
professionals in countries such as the US and Canada. The Nursing and Widwifery
Council believes about 5,000 nurses left the UK for better pay abroad last
year.

"People won’t want to leave this country for higher pay if they find
their jobs satisfying," Yeo said. "I would like people to think they
can be proud of working in the public services," he added.

Mike Griffin, director of HR at King’s College Hospital NHS Trust, agreed
that there needed to be less central direction and more local determination,
but said the issue remained as to how to ensure trusts retained proper
accountability.

By Michael Millar

Avatar
Personnel Today

previous post
Failing transport system costs UK businesses £15bn a year
next post
Record number of officers back on beat

You may also like

Grants scheme set up to support women’s health...

16 May 2022

How music can help to ease anxiety at...

9 May 2022

OH will be key to navigating ‘second pandemic’...

14 Apr 2022

OH urged to be aware of abortion consultations...

8 Apr 2022

How coached eCBT is returning the workplace to...

8 Apr 2022

Why now is the time to plug the...

7 Apr 2022

Two-thirds of shift workers feel health affected by...

18 Mar 2022

TUC warns of April Covid risk assessment ‘confusion’

14 Mar 2022

Consultation on new NHS cancer standards, as waits...

11 Mar 2022

Pandemic pivot to home working fuelled mental ill...

11 Mar 2022
  • Apprenticeships are the solution to your recruitment problems PROMOTED | Apprenticeships have the pulling power...Read more
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more
  • Why now is the time to plug the unhealthy gap PROMOTED | We’ve all heard the term ‘health is wealth’...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+