Who’s to blame for the NHS’s blame culture? | Letters

The article discusses the "blame culture" in the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK, as highlighted by former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt. The letter writers argue that the root cause of this issue lies in the government's NHS reforms, which have created a culture of corporate defensiveness and reputation anxiety within the healthcare system. The reforms have led to the proliferation of commercialized and competing NHS trusts and outside providers, causing practitioners to adapt to a corporate-like behavior, where they must demonstrate compliance, loyalty, conformity, and seamless performance, even if it is superficial. This has contributed to the intimidating mistrust and adversarial working culture that Hunt describes. The letter writers suggest that the government's reforms, rather than the healthcare professionals themselves, are the primary drivers behind the blame culture in the NHS, which can have serious consequences, such as the tragic deaths of babies mentioned in Hunt's article.