MPS DEMAND MORE NHS CONTROLS IN UK

The UK House of Commons' public accounts committee has demanded that there should be stronger systems of management control and accountability in the National Health Service. These are needed, it says, to avoid any reccurance of the "grave shortcomings" uncovered in the West Midlands region, where at least L 10 million ($14.9 million) was wasted in the health authority's services organization management.

A report by the committee, quoted in the Financial Times, says that the essence of this mismanagement was that "the official, new to the NHS, was able to follow his own path, making a bonfire of the rules in the process, uncontrolled by either the regional health authority or regional senior management."

The committee adds that the NHS management executive should have been aware of problems in the West Midlands region much earlier. And, although the executive has taken action to tighten the procedures, the committee says that the present division of responsibility between the management executive and health authorities has "too much scope for negotiation and argument."