Appraisal, last word.

DZ wasn't going to comment further on appraisal but an article in today's Guardian made him reconsider.

Yet more evidence that standards of care are falling in the NHS has come to light, making very disturbing reading. The report doesn't once mention appraisal, nor is it suggested that the fall in standards is down to poorly performing staff.

Instead what is highlighted is inadequate resources, understaffing, delays in treatment. Hardly a surprise to front line staff. It is estimated that the NHS is short of 10,000 doctors alone.

So when the NHS is so short staffed how can we possibly justify taking what staff we have away from patient care to spend significant amounts of time on a pointless tick boxing and navel gazing exercise. An exercise reviled, ridiculed and regarded with utter contempt by the staff who have to endure it.

Appraisal is a process which achieves nothing whatsoever but to irritate, annoy and demoralise, and is a dubious luxury we can not afford. Without a doubt it has failed utterly in its aim to flag up problematic staff, as detailed here. I'll repeat what I said in my last post. It is a failed experiment.

More appraisal bollocks

One of the frequent excuses behind the imposition of appraisal is that it would "prevent another Shipman", though no evidence exists as to how the process achieves this. It has to be remembered that the medical profession has not supplied the only serial killer in the NHS, and perhaps this is why appraisal is now rolled out to blight the working lives of all healthcare workers.

Well it appears that in this one and possibly only justification it has failed. The news report does not elaborate about what sort of health care worker is involved here, but it is clear that appraisal has not provided the safety net claimed. Another Shipman/Allit has been at work and gone undetected for some time. I don't suppose for a moment that she was exposed by appraisal. Perhaps she should have mentioned it in her personal development plan.

So if, as I said in my last post, it has not demonstrated that it improves standards, and it does not pick up the psycopaths in our ranks, then what is it for?