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BMJ 2002;324:1416 ( 15 June )
 

News extra

New ethical standards set for health service managers

Sally Hargreaves London

The chief executive of the NHS, Nigel Crisp, has issued a code of practice for health service managers.

The code aims to prevent serious misconduct, such as financial fraud or the falsification of information, and to ensure that managers found guilty of misconduct are not employed elsewhere in the NHS.

Pending the end of consultation in mid-July, NHS managers will be expected to adhere to a new code of ethical conduct, with the aim of preventing miscreants from working elsewhere in the NHS.

"We decided to introduce this code in order to have a means for holding managers to account for their own professional behaviour. Breaches of this code will be taken very seriously," Mr Crisp said in a recent statement.

The move was prompted by inquiries into medical practice at the Bristol Royal Infirmary and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool, and by last year’s report from the National Audit Office detailing evidence of NHS managers manipulating waiting lists to meet government targets. In some cases managers suspended from duties went on to get jobs elsewhere in the NHS.

About 3000-4000 senior NHS managers will be required to sign up to a key set of ethical standards, which will outline their key responsibilities and how they should behave. The code will require managers to make the care and safety of patients their first concern and to accept accountability for their work, the performance of staff they manage, and their own organisation.

The code also gives a set of values to inform development programmes and training for managers and brings managers in line with existing standards for healthcare professionals.

"The vast majority of managers in the NHS are highly principled and value driven people who will welcome the code," said Mr Crisp. "But we must deal with failure. We cannot have people re-employed in positions of trust if they have betrayed that trust in other parts of the NHS."

A spokesperson for the Department of Health said that breaches of the code would be investigated and dealt with by the appropriate statutory health authority.

Liz Powell, chief officer of the Liverpool Central and Southern Community Health Council, who sat on the Alder Hey inquiry panel, said that the code was an appropriate response to the findings from Alder Hey and Bristol Royal Infirmary. But she voiced concerns over how such standards would be policed and which managers the code would apply to.

"It only affects managers on senior managers’ pay, yet it should apply to everyone," she said. "We still have concerns about the many consultants and medical staff who hold managerial roles within the NHS."

The Code of Conduct for NHS Managers can be accessed at www.doh.gov.uk
 
 

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