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WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE HISTORY OF HEALTH REFORM IN THE UK?
by Melissa Sweet
Crikey
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/croakey/2012/05/04/what-can-we-learn-from-the-history-of-health-reform-in-the-uk-part-1/
May 4 2012
Australia
Some of the world's leaders in health reform and quality improvement
are heading to Australia as part of a series of workshops organised
by the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association, in conjunction
with various partners.
In the first of a series profiling some of these visitors and their
contributions to health reform, the AHHA's Terrie Paul describes
the formidable achievements of the surgeon and UK health reformer,
Professor Lord Ara Darzi.
***
Prioritising quality of care in health reform
Terrie Paul writes:
A Baghdad-born Armenian who grew up in Ireland, Professor Lord Ara
Darzi is one of the world's leading surgeons. He is a charismatic
Renaissance man who operates at 6am, pioneering robotic non-invasive
technology, but still finding time to be a formidable committee man.
Darzi's family fled the genocide by the Ottoman Turks during World
War I. He attended a Jewish school and at 17 went to study medicine
and surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He quickly
became fascinated with minimally invasive surgery at a time when it
was viewed with suspicion.
After moving to the UK as a consultant surgeon in 1991, he wrote
a seminal paper about his first laparoscopic colorectal cancer
resection. By 1994, he was an honorary consultant at Imperial College
and the Royal Marsden. Knighted for his services to surgery in 2002,
he then became the Paul Hamlyn Chair of Surgery at Imperial College
and Professor of Surgery at the Institute of Cancer Research.
When Darzi was summoned to the UK Prime Minister's office in June,
2007, he thought he was going to get a slap for his radical ideas
for reforming the National Health Service (NHS). Gordon Brown, to
his astonishment however, asked him to be a Health Minister.
In 2008, he launched High Quality Care for All - a report that
inaugurated a sea change in government policy. While Darzi presented
his next stage review as an extension of Labour policy, the truth
was quite different.
He instilled in government policy and thinking a patient-centred and
scientific approach to health reforms. Market-based decisions were
replaced with quality considerations: effectiveness, safety, and,
above all, the patient experience.
This was a watershed for the time. Bureaucratic managerialism had
been replaced with a new ideal - medical professionalism and clinical
engagement.
Touted as "the non-political politician", Darzi put a halt to the
formula that buried the NHS in perverse incentives. He invited medics
to contribute to the design of their own targets and engaged them
in reform.
By moving the focus to quality of care after Labour's decade-long
obsession with quantity (anyone care for a slice of activity based
funding?) the morale within the NHS improved, as did its public
standing.
For the first time, NHS organisations were charged with publishing
quality accounts. Institutions and individuals were rated by how well
they performed, and not just how many patients they processed.
By continuing his clinical practice, he forged respect with the
public and alliances with those who could help him traverse political
territory. He saved a colleague's life using a defibrillator on the
floor of the House of Lords, and helped another stricken by kidney
stones when No 10 sent him on a 3am house call.
He contributed to on-line forums, asking questions on parent sites
like "What makes it difficult for you to access health services? and
" If you want to access services outside normal working hours, how
do you decide where to go and what to do?
Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, cardiothoracic surgeon turned NHS Medical
Director, agrees that Darzi's contribution to the quality agenda has
been huge: "What he has done very effectively is change the mindset."
After publication of his review, Darzi saw his job as mostly done, but
stayed for a further year to steer the implementation of his reforms.
Never having intended a long political career, he resigned in July
2009 to concentrate on his passion for advancing the revolution in
robotics and image-guided surgery.
~U You have the opportunity to meet with Lord Darzi when he visits
Australia later this month. The Australian Healthcare and Hospitals
Association, in collaboration with McKinsey & Company, is running a
series of workshops around the country with him. Visit here or phone
(02) 6162 0780 for more information
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
by Melissa Sweet
Crikey
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/croakey/2012/05/04/what-can-we-learn-from-the-history-of-health-reform-in-the-uk-part-1/
May 4 2012
Australia
Some of the world's leaders in health reform and quality improvement
are heading to Australia as part of a series of workshops organised
by the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association, in conjunction
with various partners.
In the first of a series profiling some of these visitors and their
contributions to health reform, the AHHA's Terrie Paul describes
the formidable achievements of the surgeon and UK health reformer,
Professor Lord Ara Darzi.
***
Prioritising quality of care in health reform
Terrie Paul writes:
A Baghdad-born Armenian who grew up in Ireland, Professor Lord Ara
Darzi is one of the world's leading surgeons. He is a charismatic
Renaissance man who operates at 6am, pioneering robotic non-invasive
technology, but still finding time to be a formidable committee man.
Darzi's family fled the genocide by the Ottoman Turks during World
War I. He attended a Jewish school and at 17 went to study medicine
and surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He quickly
became fascinated with minimally invasive surgery at a time when it
was viewed with suspicion.
After moving to the UK as a consultant surgeon in 1991, he wrote
a seminal paper about his first laparoscopic colorectal cancer
resection. By 1994, he was an honorary consultant at Imperial College
and the Royal Marsden. Knighted for his services to surgery in 2002,
he then became the Paul Hamlyn Chair of Surgery at Imperial College
and Professor of Surgery at the Institute of Cancer Research.
When Darzi was summoned to the UK Prime Minister's office in June,
2007, he thought he was going to get a slap for his radical ideas
for reforming the National Health Service (NHS). Gordon Brown, to
his astonishment however, asked him to be a Health Minister.
In 2008, he launched High Quality Care for All - a report that
inaugurated a sea change in government policy. While Darzi presented
his next stage review as an extension of Labour policy, the truth
was quite different.
He instilled in government policy and thinking a patient-centred and
scientific approach to health reforms. Market-based decisions were
replaced with quality considerations: effectiveness, safety, and,
above all, the patient experience.
This was a watershed for the time. Bureaucratic managerialism had
been replaced with a new ideal - medical professionalism and clinical
engagement.
Touted as "the non-political politician", Darzi put a halt to the
formula that buried the NHS in perverse incentives. He invited medics
to contribute to the design of their own targets and engaged them
in reform.
By moving the focus to quality of care after Labour's decade-long
obsession with quantity (anyone care for a slice of activity based
funding?) the morale within the NHS improved, as did its public
standing.
For the first time, NHS organisations were charged with publishing
quality accounts. Institutions and individuals were rated by how well
they performed, and not just how many patients they processed.
By continuing his clinical practice, he forged respect with the
public and alliances with those who could help him traverse political
territory. He saved a colleague's life using a defibrillator on the
floor of the House of Lords, and helped another stricken by kidney
stones when No 10 sent him on a 3am house call.
He contributed to on-line forums, asking questions on parent sites
like "What makes it difficult for you to access health services? and
" If you want to access services outside normal working hours, how
do you decide where to go and what to do?
Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, cardiothoracic surgeon turned NHS Medical
Director, agrees that Darzi's contribution to the quality agenda has
been huge: "What he has done very effectively is change the mindset."
After publication of his review, Darzi saw his job as mostly done, but
stayed for a further year to steer the implementation of his reforms.
Never having intended a long political career, he resigned in July
2009 to concentrate on his passion for advancing the revolution in
robotics and image-guided surgery.
~U You have the opportunity to meet with Lord Darzi when he visits
Australia later this month. The Australian Healthcare and Hospitals
Association, in collaboration with McKinsey & Company, is running a
series of workshops around the country with him. Visit here or phone
(02) 6162 0780 for more information
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress