NHS Managers And The Election: IHM Untangles Policy From Propaganda

With only 50 days to go to the general election, it is difficult to have a clear view of how the main parties value the work of managers in healthcare and what their plans are for the future. IHM’s 20-page special pre-election Bulletin puts the health spokespeople from England’s five main parties on the spot over key issues and its panel offers a verdict on their answers.

The Francis report stopped short of recommending that healthcare managers should be accredited in some way. There are professional bodies which regulate clinical professionals and IHM was keen to discover whether politicians thought managers should be subjected to the same regulation.

Which party thinks adequate standards for senior board-level leaders and managers are already in place and which has concerns that regulation might be a further way of beating managers up at a time when they are under relentless attack by the media? And which would welcome regulation as a way of stopping managers making “stupid, negligent or vicious decisions”?

Other questions answered by the politicians are: how their parties view the role of the independent sector in healthcare; what their plans are to increase integration of care across social, primary and secondary care providers; how they will resolve the GP recruitment crisis; whether or not they will reduce targets within the health system; and whether they think inspection is the right way to improve standards.

The IHM expert panel scrutinises the politicians’ answers and offers a view on the positive or damaging implications of their policies if they came to power.

The IHM Bulletin ‘Election Special’ can be found here: http://www.ihm.org.uk/en/news-and-policy/ihm-bulletin.cfm