Monetary Rewards for Patient Satisfaction

New government plans aim to get patients to vote with their feet. Trusts will be awarded extra money if their patients report a good level on customer satisfaction.

Values are important to an organisation and values are easier to honour when times are good. If you have private health insurance you can be sure that if you become ill you will be treated well in an environment that helps to promote your wellbeing. If you are a private patient you vote with your feet - if you have not received good service then you will not return to that establishment. You don't get this level of choice in the NHS.

Not many people will dispute that the level of medical care that you receive in the NHS is usually on a par with treatment provided via health insurance. On the other hand medical care is only part of the picture. When you are ill there are many things that contribute to your wellbeing and this is what the government are now trying to deal with.

Talking to the Sunday Telegraph, Health Secretary Andy Burnham has proposed that hospitals are given more money if patients report high levels of satisfaction. He said:

'It's about how people are spoken to by staff, the cleanliness of the ward, how easy it is to park the car. So in the past the NHS has been paid for activity and volume, I'm arguing that it should be paid also according to the quality it provides, levels of patient satisfaction.'

Plans are already well under way. A pilot scheme in the north west of England is paying hospitals more if patient surveys hit quality service targets.

Despite these efforts it is difficult to see how the NHS will be able to improve in these aspects of care when hospital budgets are likely to be cut due to the toll of borrowing during this credit crunch.