Targets versus quality of care

I wrote yesterday about the government targets in the National Health Service, but I do not think I could explain myself as well as I wanted to.

To me targets are set by people who are forcing others to provide services at a higher rate.

But at what point do we put targets ahead of good quality care.

Mr Cameron wants our doctors to diagnose people within 6 weeks if they show signs of having dementia. But does he understand that this process all takes time getting scans and tests done. All these things take time to organise and set up. There is no way that this can work.

He also says that more money will be put into dementia research, but I gave heard this before, and when politicians are questioned closely about this, it's not new money, but money already in the system, so are they simply moving money around to suite themselves. The same thing happen with the National Dementia Strategy. 

Two months ago he was going to pay doctors extra money to diagnose people, then we found out that some doctors were abusing the system and wrongly diagnosing people just to make their records look better. 

This is at a time when more and more doctors are leaving the National Health Service because of the work load, which all has a knock on effect because if you need to see a doctor it usually takes two or three days in some parts of the country, unless it's an emergency.

Hospitals have targets to see more patients faster, and if they are hospitalised, there are targets to get these same people home as fast as possible whether or not they are fit and able to go home in the first place.

This government interference only serves to mess the service up, because it's putting these silly targets ahead of good quality care.

Years ago things would be discussed in parliament, but now Cameron goes out and discusses things to fit in with himself, and as far as dementia is concerned, I do feel that it's being used as a political tool to get himself out of a mess.

Surely it's time to remove these targets and go back to providing the service that this country was accustomed to having, a first class health service.

It's also time to stop these governments coming in and changing things like the health service, education and armed forces etc. 

These are major parts of our country services and to me they should be discussed by all three major parties, before changes are allowed. This is because these politicians have little or no knowledge about these services, so how can the say things need to be changed in a certain way.

 It's no good to anyone if things keep changing with every government, so it's time to stop it all before the whole of the National Health Service is destroyed.