Rather it shifts the focus from the health professionals to the patient. Team members would combine their skills and knowledge to help the patient on their journey through the hospital. This will not happen unless health professionals are receptive to change. Health is not like manufacturing industries, where changes can be mandated from above, and those resistant to the new charter are retrenched or sacked. Because better patient outcomes, not profits, are at stake, money will not drive change.
Health professionals resist changes in the workplace and cling to their traditional ways.
Unless doctors show leadership it will be impossible for others to understand what is required of them. Merrilyn Walton is an associate professor in ethical practice at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney, and deputy chair of the NSW Council for Quality in Health Care. Privacy Policy Copyright 2000. The Sydney Morning Herald.