'We should listen to our frontline staff - they know the patients'

The Keogh review highlighted that frontline healthcare staff have the most interaction with a patient

Professor Sir Bruce Keogh was asked by the prime minister to review the quality of care and treatment provided by 14 hospital trusts on the basis that they have been outliers for the last two consecutive years on either the summary hospital-level mortality indicator or the hospital standardised mortality ratio.

In recent weeks, the political jousting over measurements came close to overshadowing our real objective, accurately diagnosing the problems at these hospitals and providing them with a prescription.

In designing the Keogh mortality review we took an anthropological approach to review the care and patient experience provided at these trusts. By utilising an often-overlooked asset, frontline staff, we hoped to look closely at these organisations and understand the culture that persists. Each of the teams sent to review the 14 hospitals included at least one junior doctor, student nurse and patient representatives. The experience and skills-mix of these panel members is a microcosm of how the NHS should work; patients, doctors and nurses all committed and working together to provide the best possible health service. The newly appointed chief inspector of hospitals at the Care Quality Commission, Sir Mike Richards, has recently announced plans to adopt our approach and put frontline staff and patients at the helm of hospital inspections.

The NHS aspires to be a patient-focused organisation with unrivalled customer service. The hospitality industry has been meticulous in gathering observatory research from those at the first point of customer contact. Junior doctors and student nurses are the closest to the patient and get an unfiltered view of the quality of care a hospital provides to its patients.

Studying the observations and recommendations from frontline staff is a well-known method of improving the services offered by hospitality businesses. Similarly, frontline healthcare staff have the most direct interaction with patients and public; they understand challenges faced by both patient and provider and are therefore a rich source of intelligence.

Read the complete article on the Guardian website

Na'eem Ahmed