Health trusts ‘perform better with doctors on boards’

Boards at most NHS trusts remain dominated by non-clinicians including career health service managers and accountants despite efforts to encourage more doctors and nurses to step up. But research by Leeds University Business School claims having more doctors on boards increases patient satisfaction and leads to “very tangible performance gains”.

The study claims this could have implications for coalition plans for the NHS which have sought to give clinicians a higher profile in making key decisions.

The report says clinicians make up an average of just 26 per cent of board members in English hospital trusts, with doctors accounting for only 14 per cent of boards, which is low by international standards.

It found more clinicians are likely to be on the boards of trusts where the chief executive has a clinical background.

The report concludes: “What our results show is that even a modest increase in the number of doctors on boards can have marked consequences for performance.

“Currently in the NHS, the focus is on the (largely-untested) assumption that increasing competition and choice will drive up standards. Our research does not discount this possibility.

“What it does however is point to a far less costly and disruptive way in which it might be possible to improve the quality of health services simply by increasing the role of doctors in strategic decision making.

“However considerable work remains to realise these benefits and to fully exploit the significant contribution clinical professionals can make to the direction of our health services.”