Have targets improved the NHS?
In the run up to the election the King’s Fund have written a series of articles to assist the voter to evaluate the state of the NHS. One of these is entitled, Have targets improved NHS performance? The article hedges a lot and describes the pros and cons as they see it. They list the [...]
NHS A&E target "risks patient safety"
The BBC website reports what the chairman of the College of Emergency Medicine, Dr John Heyworth recently said about the 4 hour waiting target, “We’ve had nurses reduced to tears. We’ve had very senior consultants in emergency medicine threatened with a disciplinary process. “This is an outrageous misuse of the standard.” That this is being [...]
Targets are all SMART, let’s make measures VVAPID
For many years I have been told that targets should be SMART. This means they should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed. Well actually, all targets are already SMART: SimplisticMeaninglessArbitraryRoad blocksTorture Simplistic Targets are simplistic. Targets are a sledgehammer to crack a nut and they come with no context or method. Targets are imposed [...]
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