NHS: 'Personal' Means People First, UK
So too will Gordon Brown's emphasis on personalised health care.
What he and Department of Health officials need to remember is that a personal service is as much - perhaps more than - about relationships as it is about narrow definitions of choice of secondary care providers.
For many patients, especially those with long term conditions, continuity of care is a necessity. Sound academic research by the World Health Organisation, Professor Barbara Starsfield and others has demonstrated that a relationship of trust between primary care clinician and patient enables problems to be picked up and treated earlier, self help encouraged and personal health maximised.
It is also cheaper because the need for repeat consultations is reduced. A one-size-fits-all approach to screening, as with so much else, would defeat its own object.
NHS Alliance chairman Dr Michael Dixon said:
"We must guard against creating a health system that regards its patients and its professionals as mere machines: sets of parts that can be switched on or off, with a plethora of different ports of call for different diseases and different parts of the body.
"It may give the patient more choice of provider, but it can too easily lead to inconsistent and disintegrated care. There is a danger that no one is truly accountable, no one has the patients overall best interests in mind - or even knows the patient as a fellow human being - and costs inevitably spiral."
Note:
1. The NHS Alliance is the independent body that represents NHS primary care. It is a collaboration of clinicians and managers who put patients first and is the only fully multi-professional health service organisation in the UK.
http://www.nhsalliance.org
NHS: "personale" înseamnã People First, Marea Britanie - NHS: 'Personal' Means People First, UK - articole medicale engleza - startsanatate