Key Summary
- The government is set to unveil a 10-year plan to overhaul the NHS next week
- The funding to hospitals will soon be linked to the ratings provided by patients
- Salary of doctors and nurses to be linked to their success in bringing down waiting lists
As prime minister, Keir Starmer, plans to overhaul the NHS, the funding to hospitals will soon be linked to the ratings provided by patients, the Times reports.
The government is set to unveil a 10-year plan for the NHS next week, and the ministers claim it will make the health service "fit for the future".
The patients would be contacted weeks after receiving treatment and asked about their experience at the hospital.
If the patient feedback is negative, roughly 10 per cent of 'standard payment rates' will be diverted to a local 'improvement fund.'
The pilot programmes will be rolled out next year at hospitals with a poor performance record.
The government is also set to link doctors' and nurses' pay to their success in bringing down waiting lists.
The NHS recently claimed that its waiting list has fallen to its lowest level in two years.
Health secretary Wes Streeting had said the NHS was on the road to recovery "after years of soaring waiting time" and this was a start.
However, concerns are being raised over the proposed hospital rating plan.
NHS Confederation chief executive Matthew Taylor has said, "Patient experience is determined by far more than their individual interaction with the clinician and so, unless this is very carefully designed and evaluated, there is a risk that providers could be penalised for more systemic issues, such as constraints around staffing or estates, that are beyond their immediate control to fix."
He also pointed out that no other healthcare system internationally has adopted this model.
