Are nurse-led mutuals the future of NHS care delivery?

摘要

A flexible, innovative and patient-focused health service delivered by nurses who have direct ownership and control. Does this sound too good to be true? Yet this is what can, and has been, achieved by nurse-led mutuals.The current challenges facing the NHS make it difficult to ignore the potential benefits.The concept of nurses taking over the ownership and running of a service is not new. Central Surrey Health (CSH), a nurse-led therapy and community nursing service, was the first group to 'spin out' of the NHS back in 2006 to form an independent mutual (an organisation owned by its staff). It is co-owned and run by the 800 nurses and therapists who deliver services across central Surrey. Managing Directors Jo Pritchard (registered nurse) and Tricia McGregor (speech and language therapist), together with the CSH Surrey team, have won numerous awards for their service and are an example of what can be achieved through the mutual model. A recent survey found that 100% of the co-owners could see how their work directly related to patient care (even if they didn't have direct contact with patients), compared with 84% in the NHS staff survey.