Partha Kar: If you believe you can change it, prove it

Data and process are both key. Without outcomes, however, they become yet another paperwork driven exercise with no final product. Healthcare, especially in the NHS, is blighted by such episodes. Despite having the right intentions, highlighting problems and developing processes, initiatives too often falter at the key bit: implementation to change outcomes. The problem is that, at some point, such repeated episodes culminate in stakeholder apathy and a loss of energy, or indeed a loss of belief among those whose lives you set out to improve. The reports of the Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) have had that sort of feel. There’s no doubting the passion behind the initiative, the data, or the process. Yet the implementation of these best laid plans has faltered, raising the question of how much will be achieved by yet another …