An unhealthy picture

We tend to expect that companies and organisations that operate in sectors with significant social impact should be keen to communicate that they have robust policies and systems in place to manage related areas of risk and opportunity. This isn’t always the case. Recent activity in the UK’s health services arena has highlighted this.

Michael Parkinson, a well known broadcaster, has just published a high profile report entitled ‘My year as National Dignity Ambassador’, wherein he recounts his experiences while in the post. Most of the media coverage has focused on his negative findings, the lack of respect exhibited towards elderly patients in certain instances and the lapses in the care his own mother received in her last years. However, the author is still a firm believer in the UK’s public health service (NHS), stating that it ‘remains the greatest example of everything that a civilised and compassionate society is capable of.’

Many of the services offered by the NHS can, and have been, outsourced. Following this kind of coverage, the companies and organisations that run these services will find their businesses under greater scrutiny. We took a look at the communications emanating from various private sector providers to the NHS. Surprisingly we found, for example, little evidence of human rights policies.  We also noted a consistent lack of information concerning quality management systems and the development of these over time.

Closer scrutiny of a number of providers revealed that none of the organisations that operate in this arena in the UK communicate their approach to this area particularly well. Moving early on this issue is likely to positively affect a company’s ability to win tenders and develop their brand, as well as a wide variety of stakeholder relations. We suspect that the noted UK experience applies elsewhere too.