Staffordshire Hospital debacle - is there an alternative to 'learning the lessons'?

Whether its Mid Staffordshire hospital or Child P, the only thing that politicians and bureaucrats seem to be able to say is that ‘lessons will be learnt’. The problem is that learning the lessons will involve more of the same policies that drove Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust to ignore its patients in the first place: More targets to make sure that the latest ‘lessons’ really are being learnt and more pressure to become more commercially successful and market driven. 

Hearing these tired lines being rolled out yet again really is painful. The record is so worn that even the politicians seem to sense that given the complexity of our systems and the fact that 'stuff happens' it will only be a matter of time before they are wearily appearing on the Today programme or Newsnight telling us - again - that lessons will be learnt. Is there an alternative to this. Well, yes, it’s called listening - really listening - to patients, families and staff. Sounds almost as Pollyanna-ish as Alan Johnson doesn't it? So what's changed? After all when did you last hear a patient say ‘please can I fill in another survey?' or 'Can I please come to lots of focus groups?'  

What’s different is the economics of the web: cheap public voice, our increasing ability here at Patient Opinion to identify the 'thoughtfully passionate' people who, with recent experience of a service, really want to help change it, and easy tools that promote collaboration - that’s what has changed. Which doesn’t mean we've all caught up with he possibilities yet, but they sure are more interesting and likely to delivery better care right across the NHS than one more heave at 'learning lessons'.  

What might this mean for the “appalling care” identified by the Healthcare Commission at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust? Well, here are recent three stories that we have published about the trust: Last week: Good care: no complaints.  Three weeks ago: Mixed care; worries about cleanliness persist; includes response from the hospital Last month: worries about short staffing persist: But the web offers much more than timely, human stories that get beyond the spin.  Cheap voice means cheap ways to collectivise wisdom. Done thousands of times, day in day, out this, the web gives us the new ways to really listen to patients that we need. Then perhaps we'd see the lessons that patients and front line staff saw years ago at Stafford and they could have enough traction against institutional and government pressures to get something done.  The NHS may not have caught up with the web but the web is certainly catching up with the NHS.