Clapping for the NHS like a 'national religion' during pandemic was dangerous, health watchdog suggests
18 August 2024, 08:40
Clapping the NHS during the Covid-19 pandemic and treating the service as a “national religion” potentially had “dangerous” consequences, the health ombudsman has suggested.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Rebecca Hilsenrath warned that in doing so, the service was protected from constructive criticism as she called on its leaders to radically change the culture and listen to those it fails.
Ms Hilsenrath, who previously led the Equality and Human Rights Commission, also accused the NHS of “doubly traumatising” families of victims by refusing to acknowledge the harm caused.
The ombudsman, which is the highest authority for unresolved grievances, has submitted evidence to an investigation of the NHS that shows a near 50 per cent rise in complaints since 2020/21.
The independent investigation was ordered by Wes Streeting when he became Health Secretary in July, after concluding “the NHS is broken”.
Ms Hilsenrath told The Telegraph: “There is an argument I have heard that clapping for the NHS during the pandemic was quite a dangerous thing to do … because no organisation can be a national religion, and no organisation should be beyond constructive criticism.
“I don’t think that it is helpful for any organisation to be treated as religion.”
Ms Hilsenrath suggested the “national mood has changed” since the gratitude shown during the pandemic, with an upsurge in complaints.
She said the failure of the NHS to listen to those who had felt let down meant it was not learning the lessons of errors made.
She expressed particular concern over a surge in maternity investigations, saying too many lives were lost after failures to listen to women in labour.
In the last year, the ombudsman for England has investigated almost twice as many maternity cases as the previous year, in every case because the NHS had failed to probe sufficiently, new figures show.
Evidence submitted to the investigation shows 27,479 complaints about the NHS in England to the Ombudsman in 2023/24, with two in three at least partly upheld.
This is 47 per cent up on the 18,727 received in 2020/21, and almost double the 14,615 complaints recorded in 2011/12.
“I think it does speak to a change in attitude towards the NHS and a far lower degree of happiness with services,” Ms Hilsenrath said.
Despite her concerns over the service, she did not agree with the view expressed by Mr Streeting that it is “broken”.
She said: “I don’t think that’s really helpful. We have to have an honest conversation about what’s really going on and how it needs to do better.”
Ms Hilsenrath said she could understand why the health service had been applauded during the pandemic.
“Of course, people were enormously grateful for the extraordinary efforts that people in NHS went to during that time, including risking their own personal safety,” she said.
“I also know that the national mood has changed since then, and I think it’s incredibly difficult as an NHS worker to consistently read about the failings in your service, and how you’re letting people down.”
