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Targets in healthcare: more harm than good?

Civitas, 19 February 2009

One of the most pervasive beliefs in government is that quality in the NHS is a function of individuals who need buttons pressed and levers pulled by targets to deliver optimal performance. This is misguided. The most intractable problems in health care—the lack of communication, leadership, and teamwork; the lack of integration; and the lack of any meaningful, patient focused, quality framework—are systemic or cultural. And targets have only made them worse. If you treat people like knaves and pawns, they will behave like them.

Continued at bmj.com.

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