A look back at 2013

摘要

NHS on the rocks The UK's Health and Social Care Bill reform continued unabated in 2013, taking effect in April despite opposition from most health professionals, many of whom are keen to keep effectiveness of the new clinical commissioning groups high on the coalition government's agenda. This year also saw publication of the final damning report into the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, which exposed serious failings in patient care. Despite claims by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt that changes would be made in the wake of the scandal, in November the Care Quality Commission reported that many acute hospitals had made "no improvement in assessing and monitoring the quality of care". To compound the NHS crisis, mortality rates in NHS hospitals were reported to be nearly double those in the USA and ￡400 million in extra funding had to be allocated to help accident and emergency departments cope with the demands ofwinter.