Tuesday 14 July 2009

Cause and Effect

There's been a scheme of late, in an adjacent county, to promote breast feeding. It's been praised as a success. This is because the PCT and midwives and health visitors all have seen that more people have attended or had contact with breast feeding promotion, so more women have had the right information and support. More, patient feedback forms were used. They’re not ill, they’re not even under health services, but they’re still patients and not service users. Hmmm, odd, that. Ho hum.

Anyway, the patient feedback was embarrassingly good. Gushing praise ‘bout dedicated, passionate, informed breast feeding counsellors and peer support counselling and breast feeding cafes and baby bistros where mums could meet for advice and support from other mums and from informed/expert resources too. Mums love it, see it all as a great success and really value it.

Everyone wins.

The PCT wins, they commission a great community programme for young mums and babies, ticking the box for a national agenda (promoting breast feeding) in a locality where breastfeeding rates are low, at under 1/3 of the national average.

The acute Trust wins, saying they’re generating a great patient centred valuable service, through investing in staff and developing projects to invest in mums and babies, getting young babies off to the best start in life.

The local community/patient population wins, with mums saying it’s all great and generating oodles of feedback forms saying so.

A year on, a keen midwife and health visitor evaluated the impact of this combination of successful projects. Everyone was still optimistic, dedicated, enthused and happy. All was as popular as ever. Everyone saying what a fantastic development it is. The midwife and health visitor looked at breast feeding rates now, compared to the years gone by.

They’re no different.

A good idea is had. Good, passionate, competent staff develop the idea. Managers in the PCT fund the idea. The idea’s delivered and the patient love the service. Ticks lots of boxes ‘bout addressing a local failing in low breastfeeding rates, improving patient choice and community services and peer support and Local Extension of Services and whatnots.

But the service isn’t effective.

It costs a lot of money. The staff time (daytime and evenings), the ongoing staff training, the cost of the use of the properties it’s delivered in, all adds up. Adds up to quite a lot, actually. Massive investment (in time and money) to improve breast feeding, for no improvement in breast feeding uptake or mums maintaining breast feeding.

Should the health service continue to fund this?

We’ve an identical scenario in mental health services locally, that’s popular and well received and highly valued by patients, but doesn’t deliver any beneficial outcomes that patients or staff can see. But it’s just as hard to say that we’ll stop that and use the money in a different and better way, to be more useful. Both commissioners in both situations and flapping about “patient choice” and saying they like the “service” even though it isn’t an effective service.

Is seeing something and liking it and believing it’s doing something else a valid use of taxpayers’ money? Or a valid use of NHS staff and patients’ time? It’s a bit like reckoning that, statistically speaking, those people who have more birthdays live longer, thus I must eat more cake with candles on top. It’s all gone a bit peculiar.

3 comments:

XE said...

Just my two cents: A year is not a long time to change the social norms in a community. I suspect that perhaps if they continue to fund this breastfeeding program, it will eventually pay off, but they mustn't expect to change the culture overnight. Breastfeeding will become more accepted and mums will gradually take it up more often if given the appropriate resources, but the evaluators need to look more long-term.

Gus said...

Interesting post.

My view is either find a way to show benefit - not hard to do - or scrap it and fund something that is beneficial.

In these cash straitened times such schemes will be increasingly canned.

Alzgirl said...

Yes an interesting post - applies to the voluntary sector too,as services should/must reflect best ways of meeting needs with the public's donations.