Managing health services for quality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Managing health services for quality - Essay Example Nonetheless, a mere increase in the budget without the corresponding increase in the number of personnel does not result in a more efficient and competent service. Efficiency will only be enhanced by a small percentage due to the heightened motivation brought about by the increase in salary. It is emphasized that while the workforce has exhibited noticeable enthusiasm in its performance, this is not reflective of true efficiency since this will plateau after a period of time when effect of the budget or wage increase has lost its appeal or when fatigue sets in. Efficiency should not therefore be measured by the amount of money poured into the NHS as the amount of money does not create more time for the same number of personnel to perform their functions with efficiency and fervour. Efficiency therefore should be computed base on the number of patients handled per NHS personnel. Please note that NHS is not composed solely of medical personnel who actually interact with patients but ra ther it is also complemented by administrative personnel and other non-essential or semi-essential staff to run efficiently. Efficiency should similarly be equated on the number of essential personnel whose responsibility involves face to face interaction with patients. Focusing on Jo Webber’s letter regarding ambulance response time, Jo was in the opinion that essential to meeting response time for ambulance is also satisfying the actual need of the patient in such time of medical distress. It would not make any sense he averred that the ambulance is at the scene simply to meet the time limit but is inutile in responding to the medical needs of the patient. It cannot be ignored however that measuring response time is the only visible aspect of emergency response that can be considered to quantify efficiency. Other factors such as effectiveness of the team will always rely on the present situation since at most every ambulance is only equipped to respond to certain emergencie s but definitely not on all emergencies. Otherwise every ambulance will be considered a moving field hospital travelling in excess of 100kph on the average. Chris Week’s letter regarding patient empowerment elucidated the need for patient to choose the kind of medical care a person would like to have and from whom. Although NHS and some HMO guarantee the best kind of service available to residents, the extent of a patient’s empowerment should not go beyond what is required to fulfil the mandate of medical practitioners to provide medical care. To illustrate: There are patients who cannot decide rationally because of their fear as to the severity of their medical condition. Imposing patient empowerment on the situation would run counter to the interest of the patient and if it remains unabated notwithstanding benign illnesses, patients would demand the performance of unnecessary tests simply to convince them of a non-existent syndrome in the first place to the detriment of those patients who are in dire need treatment. b. Cause: Regarding Richard Barnes comment: NAO’s concern although fiscal competence should also take into consideration the fiscal cost of efficiency. Fiscal cost of efficiency refers to the amount of capital needed to achieve a certain level of efficiency. In this case, it would seem that there is confusion with regards to the efficiency criteria NAO is trying to project to the public. Measuring efficiency based on the