Final Report > Chapter 25: Competent Healthcare Professionals > Messages from Bristol

Messages from Bristol

• There was no requirement on hospital consultants to keep their skills and knowledge up to date nor to demonstrate to anyone other than their peer group that they remained sufficiently skilled.
• Surgeons were able to introduce new techniques without any formal system of notification and without the need to demonstrate the necessary level of skill.
• Patients were cared for by distinct groups of health professionals. Collaboration and inter-professional teamwork were poorly organised.
• Appointments of clinicians to managerial positions on occasions were filled on the basis of seniority or `muggins' turn' (next in line), rather than the ability to do the job.
• Clinicians undertaking managerial roles did not receive the necessary formal training or support.
• The communication skills of the healthcare professionals varied greatly.
• The systems in existence were not capable of assuring the competence of healthcare professionals.
• Poor or diminishing competence could not be adequately addressed until it became manifestly bad.