| | Government hails NHS statistics success
26 Jun 2003 by Malcolm Drury
The government has hailed new performance statistics as indicating a major success.
Health service Ombudsperson Ann Abraham has revealed that a record number of people complained to her last year over their NHS care - close to 4000 complaints in the 12 months to April 2003. "That's a 50% increase over the previous year," she told reporters before driving off in the Ombudscar.
Ombudsoffice spokesman Douglas Ramsbudsbottom explained that many of these complaints were from people dissatisfied with NHS decisions on funding for long-term care.
The new health secretary, Dr John Reid, hailed these statistics. Addressing a press conference at the Bootle General Hospital he said: "Think about it - a 50% improvement in statistics. I view that as a major success. It means we are getting much better stakeholder engagement. People are letting us know of their concerns."
"It shows the system of reforms we are putting in place is working," he added. Asked to expand on this he continued: "It's obvious, isn't it? It's precisely what we want - an open and honest dialogue with our stakeholders on the reforms."
When it was pointed out that an increase in complaints might not actually be an indicator of progress in the desired direction, Dr Reid replied: "Well, it all depends on how you look at it. With the pace of reforms to the NHS continuing unabated, we need to have all kinds of statistics. These statistics show that we have a lot more patients - or, rather, potential patients - than we thought. That's the kind of thing we need to know to make the reforms a success. And let's face it; a 50% improvement is not to be sneezed at. Especially if you need to get NHS treatment for the sneezing."
Look at this, moron.
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