The NHS must respect patient’s individual requirements and not compromise the quality of patient care, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams has said.

|TOP|The spiritual head of the worldwide Anglican Communion has warned that “short-term economics” have threatened to undermine the basic rights of patients, and this in turn could put them at unnecessary risk.

Speaking at Westminster Abbey for the annual Florence Nightingale Commemoration, Dr Williams explained to nursing representatives at the service, that there were already concerns that more and more trusts were focusing too much on budgets, often leading to a detrimental effect occurring on staff and patients.

Dr Williams stated, “NHS Trusts vary enormously; but there are enough whose style of management seems driven by short-term economics to give real concern.

“Anecdotes abound of senior and responsible people in hospitals being given ridiculously short notice of economies to be achieved.”

He went on to speak about the effectiveness of the increased budgetary role of medical practices in the working structure of hospitals.

“If nurses and other staff are not treated with dignity, what help do they have in treating patients with dignity?” said the Archbishop.

|AD|He rebuked developments in the NHS over recent decades that have seen accountability and accountancy often becoming “seriously confused”.

Blaming “false and destructive” models in obtaining targets, Dr Williams spoke out against the way the clinical practice has become evermore distorted.

With the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill going before the House of Lords on 12th May, Dr Williams also expressed his fears for vulnerable patients such as the terminally ill.

He said, “A target-obsessed NHS, managed with an eye to brisk traffic through its beds and reduction of expense, doesn't feel a very good place in which to have a reasoned and balanced discussion of assisted dying. Once we let go of the principle that everyone deserves care and respect, we are in uncharted territory.

“If there is ever what looks like a short-cut in dealing with the terminally ill or even the outstandingly inconvenient, resource-intensive patient, we have to face the possibility of any number of subtle pressures that may be at work in favour of assisted dying, however little the proponents of this may want it or approve it.”

The Church of England head urged the NHS not just to focus on gaining sufficient resources, but to always check itself and keep clear the purpose that those resources were intended for.

The Archbishop underlined the importance that the NHS treat its own professionals with respect, and told them that material and economic goals were not the only fundamental issues.

In response the Department of Health issued a statement saying, “Last year, the NHS treated more people, faster and better than ever before - and saved more lives than ever before. Dignity, respect and putting patients at the heart of all decisions are at the centre of all of our policies, so we agree with much of what the Archbishop has said.”