Poor communication in the NHS wastes public funds and damages patient care

Poor communication in the NHS has a profound impact on patient care, staff burnout and public funds, a new report published by Marie Curie today warns¹. 

The report’s author, Andrew McDonald, formerly a top civil servant, argues that inadequacies in communication are damaging medical care and wasting much-needed NHS resources. The total cost, in England alone, is likely to be far in excess of £1 billion a year. 

The report says that better communication between healthcare professionals and patients can save costs, improve health outcomes and enhance the quality of experience of patients and the professionals who support them.

Today’s report chimes with a succession of reports, including the recent Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report into complaints about end of life care, which identified poor communication as a major factor in poor patient care².  It will be launched at a lecture by Andrew McDonald, Let’s Talk About Cancer, hosted by the Royal College of Physicians and Marie Curie. Andrew will tell his story of treatment for cancer but he will argue a more general case for determined action to tackle inadequate communication.

Andrew McDonald said: “Poor communication harms patients and wastes money.  We have paid lip service to the need to tackle this problem for too long.  We have the means to tackle it, and to do so cost effectively.   What we need is the determination to drive up standards.  And not to rest until we have done so.  This report is a call to action.”

The report – “A long and winding road – Improving communication with patients in the NHS” – also includes practical solutions on how to further improve the quality of communication in the NHS, through training to develop relevant skills, the deployment of more clinical nurse specialists and the use of small, low cost interventions to help change behaviour and clinical practice. 

NHS England is currently considering its response to the training recommendations in the Cancer Taskforce Report of September last year³.  Currently, no coherent policy is in place to improve matters, following the cut in central funding for training senior doctors and nurses on advanced communication skills.  The problem has not disappeared, but the means to solve it have. 

The report urges the NHS to go further, developing a comprehensive business case for improved communication to support curative and palliative care.  

Dr Jane Collins, Chief Executive of Marie Curie, said: “We know that shared-decision making benefits patients, clinical staff and saves much-needed resources.  Progress has unquestionably been made on recognising the importance of good communication, but there is still a long way to go. Unless NHS clinicians are given the training and have the time to do it properly, they will continue to struggle to have some of the most difficult conversations imaginable.”

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