Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants. Jeremy Hunt has taken up this mantra with the launch of the NHS’s Accountability Hub today. As well as offering information about your nearest GP or hospital, the NHS Choices website is now full of patient safety indicators which, according to the Department of Health, offer an ‘unprecedented amount of patient safety information to allow patients, regulators and staff to see safety performance across a range of indicators.’
All sounds like a good idea, so I had a poke around to see how much information was available on two hospitals I’ve had the pleasure of visiting — one in London, one in Gateshead. Out of the seven indicators, this is what NHS Choices had to say:
As you can see, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital is slightly understaffed, while Chelsea and Westminster is ‘among the worst’ for open and honest reporting and is rated poor for patient safety notices.
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