Business experts say the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) is a failure, kept alive by ‘unconscious social demands’ that it could prevent disease and death if only it were well-run. The reality is that it is doing neither, but still swallowing vast amounts of public money.
This enormous misperception is caused by organisational blind spots that are the result of a ‘perfect storm’ of unworkable policies and defensive behaviour, say researchers from the universities of Warwick and Durham.
The voices of people at the sharp end-such as doctors and patients-are often unheard because of the implicit belief in the workability of the NHS. The decision-makers have an emotional investment in the NHS that renders them deaf to complaints and voices of concern. “There is enormous pressure to demonstrate success,” say the researchers, and this is leading to greater and greater material losses.
(Source: Human Relations, 2014; doi: 10.1177/0018726714530012)
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