I believe that Francis is right: a regulatory organisation for managers is needed.
We must be brave. There must be a cultural clean-out and a new start, including a new head of the NHS Commissioning Board, who does not appoint a deputy who faces possible investigation for gagging whistleblowers —unless, of course, Dame Barbara Hakin deregisters from the General Medical Council beforehand—and who does not seem systematically to appoint those who had contact with West Midlands health authority or Birmingham, but has the trust and faith of doctors, nurses and patients, and epitomises this new era of transparency and accountability.
I believe that with Don Berwick’s help—albeit about five years later than it could have happened—we are now beginning to step in the right direction to ensure that never again can the NHS be too loved to be scrutinised or too holy to be questioned, and that this debate will go some way to breaking what has been, for more than a decade, a literally deadly silence.
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