All the main parties in Britain regard the National Health Service (NHS) as a fundamental part of the modern British welfare state, but a number of recent scandals suggest that there are weaknesses and flaws in the system.
The Mid-Staffordshire NHS trust, which was the subject of a recent official inquiry into the standards of care at the hospital, has been dissolved. The inquiry revealed serious flaws in the culture of the NHS. There was a lack of openness to criticism and general defensiveness. There was a lack of consideration for patients, an acceptance of poor standards and a failure to put the interests of the patient first. The administrators concentrated on achieving targets rather than improving care.
The responsibility for ensuring that the NHS looks after patients lies with a quango called the Care Quality Commission. The commission did not do its job properly in this case. It later emerged that officials had suppressed a report, which showed that the commission had failed in another case, because it showed the commission in a bad light. The commission has shown that "it was not fit for purpose."