Health Management and Policy Alert

Building an organisational culture of continuous improvement: learning from the evaluation of the NHS partnership with Virginia Mason Institute

The Health Foundation -
This long read contains an evaluation of the NHS partnership with Virginia Mason Institute, which examined how five NHS trusts in England attempted to build a culture of continuous improvement, provides important lessons about how to plan and implement an organisation-wide approach to improvement. It outlines some of the key learning from the evaluation and offers recommendations for national policymakers and local systems leaders.

• Long read

NHS 111’s response to callers with Covid-19-related symptoms during the pandemic

Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch -
This investigation aims to support improvements in the delivery of NHS 111 and other telephone triage services during a national health care emergency. The investigation uses real patient safety incidents involving patients and their families who dialled NHS 111 (and were either managed through NHS 111 or the Covid-19 Response Service) for advice during the Covid-19 pandemic. These are referred to as ‘reference events’ and support examination of the national issues. The four reference events used in this report occurred in the early months (March–June 2020) of the pandemic, but the report also highlights learnings and developments from later in the pandemic. It highlights the importance of ‘stand-up’ services and clear communication across the NHS and to the public when they are accessing telephone triage services in times of national emergencies.

• Report
• Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch - news

People first: a response from health and care leaders to the urgent and emergency care system crisis

Care Quality Commission (CQC) -
This resource was designed and developed: using outcomes from CQC's urgent and emergency care workshop, held in May 2022; and by members of the CQC National Emergency Medicine Specialist Advisor Forum. It recognises the unscheduled care pathway as a continuum, with solutions required across the artificial divides between primary, secondary, community and social care. It aims to: support the design of person-centred urgent and emergency care services; and encourage innovation across integrated care systems.

• Report
• Care Quality Commission - publications

 

Our plan for patients

Department of Health and Social Care -
This policy paper details the government’s plans for the NHS and social care to deliver for patients, this winter and next. It covers four areas: ambulances; backlogs; care; and doctors and dentists.

• Policy paper
• Department of Health and Social Care - publications

Outcome delivery plans: the case for keeping and improving the government’s performance framework

Institute for Government - 

New governments often scrap the performance framework of their predecessor. This report sets out why the new government would be wise to retain outcome delivery plans (ODPs) and provides recommendations on how the ODP framework can be strengthened.

• Report
• More detail

What do we want from the next prime minister? Health and social care

Policy Exchange - 

This manifesto sets out sixteen policy ideas for the health and care sector: eight focused upon the current pressures concerning access to services; and eight which look to put the NHS on a sustainable longer-term footing.

• Manifesto
• More detail

Patient-initiated follow-up: will it free up capacity in outpatient care?

Nuffield Trust - 

With the number of outpatient hospital appointments in England recently as high as 125 million per year and a huge elective care backlog following the Covid-19 pandemic, patient-initiated follow-up (PIFU) on NHS outpatient appointments has been touted as a potential solution in appropriate cases. This briefing explains what is known from the available evidence and earlier evaluations of PIFU about how personalising follow-up impacts service use and patient experience and outcomes. It also discusses key implementation considerations for the NHS as it seeks to mainstream this approach.

• Briefing
• More detail

Waiting for NHS hospital care: the role of the independent sector

The Health Foundation - 

Given the role anticipated for the independent sector in elective care recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, this long read explores the sector’s role to date, looks at how this has changed since the pre-pandemic period, and considers what it might mean for patients waiting for different types of treatments, and living in different parts of England.

• Long read

Projections: general and acute hospital beds in England (2018–2030)

Health Foundation - 

This research reviews past trends in hospital bed numbers and set out our projections for the number of general and acute beds required in 2030/31 under different assumptions about the time patients spend in hospital. Under the central projections, an additional 23,000 to 39,000 beds would be needed in 2030/31 to deliver 2018/19 rates of care. Policymakers have options available to meet demand but anticipating and planning for the long term is critical to ensure the NHS has the capacity it needs.

• Report
• Press release

A community-powered NHS: making prevention a reality

New Local -
This report argues for a health care system that is focused as much on preventing illness as treating it. It discusses how working collaboratively with communities as equal partners in the design and delivery of health care could be a way of achieving this.

• Report
• New Local - publications