Measured Outcomes
In furtherance of an evidence-based NHS, it was only normal that a study of the effectiveness of decentralisation from State control would be undertaken. In July 2011 the first fully independent study was published. Now with data from a cohort of 137 FTs available for analysis, rather than the first few hospitals to achieve status, a statistically more meaningful picture can be seen. This showed that the better figures recorded by the first trusts to reach foundation status were due to factors already in place before the introduction of the FT initiative. This is also the likely reason that they were quick to gain trust status. The initial promising results were thus not repeated by all the other trusts which eventually were given permission to become a foundation trust. This appears to support the opinions of the system's critics, in whose view, the only benefit was held by the trust board-members who would now be able to award their own pay increases, balanced against the down-side of having to administer a more costly system of regulation; these two combining to increase the total drain on the NHS coffers. It remains to be seen if this way of lessening of State interference brings about any benefits which offset these greater costs of salaries and regulation.
Read more about this topic: NHS Foundation Trust
Famous quotes containing the word measured:
“I must remind you that our credulity is not to be measured by the truth of the things we believe. When men believed that the earth was flat, they were not credulous: they were using their common sense, and, if asked to prove that the earth was flat, would have said simply, “Look at it.” Those who refuse to believe that it is round are exercising a wholesome skepticism.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)