Health Management and Policy Alert

How improvement can help NHS productivity: a joint analysis with Q

Health Foundation -
This analysis sets out five key actions policymakers and organisation, system and improvement leaders need to take to develop and implement a more holistic, quality-focused approach to productivity. It argues that a new productivity narrative must be shaped and driven by extensive engagement with stakeholders at every level of the health care system.

• Health Foundation - publications

Modern outpatient care: using resources to add value

Royal College of Physicians (RCP) - 

The RCP has worked with a broad spectrum of stakeholders, including the Patients Association, NHS England, medical and surgical specialist organisations, operational teams, primary care, think tanks, and resident doctors, to reframe the purpose of outpatient care and understand what we want the future of outpatient care to look like. This guide provides practical principles for efficient and effective outpatient care and includes clinic template recommendations which is hoped will support local and regional clinical teams.

• Guide
• Press release

Integrated operational pressures escalation levels (OPEL) framework 2024 to 2026

NHS England - 

This integrated operational pressures escalation levels (OPEL) framework 2024 to 2026 is for the management of operational pressures across NHS England’s providers, including acute trusts, community health, mental health, and NHS 111 services and provides the core parameters that each of these types of provider must use to determine their OPEL.

• Access the framework
• More detail

Can this government really recover NHS performance standards within a single parliament? And what are the costs of trying?

The King's Fund - 

Siva Anandaciva (incoming Director of Policy at The King's Fund) calls for the government to conduct a full review of performance targets, if it's serious about driving through reforms to the health care service.

• Long read

Maternity survey 2024

Care Quality Commission -
This survey looked at the experiences of pregnant women and new mothers who used NHS maternity services in 2024. It shows some areas of improvement over the past year, particularly regarding access to mental health support during pregnancy. However, there remain other aspects of maternity care where people report a poorer experience and where analysis indicates a longer term decline in positive feedback over time, including communication during labour and birth, information provided during care in hospital after birth and involvement in postnatal care.

• Survey results
• Care Quality Commission - press release

Unlocking productivity through the ambulance estate

NHS Confederation -
This briefing sets out the current condition of ambulance trusts’ estates in England and discovers a growing maintenance backlog which has reached over £146 million. It explains the role that improved support and control facilities can play in increasing the ambulance service’s productivity and highlights some key areas of best practice already apparent in England and Wales.

• Briefing

Waiting for a way forward: voices of women and healthcare professionals at the centre of the gynaecology care crisis

Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) - 

Building on the RCOG's 2022 report, Left for too long, this report seeks to deepen understanding of gynaecology waiting lists in the UK national health services and ask women and professionals about their experiences and what solutions they believed would help the recovery of gynaecology waiting lists and improve care for women.

• Report
• Press releae

 

Waiting for a way forward: voices of women and healthcare professionals at the centre of the gynaecology care crisis

Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) - 

Building on the RCOG's 2022 report, Left for too long, this report seeks to deepen understanding of gynaecology waiting lists in the UK national health services and ask women and professionals about their experiences and what solutions they believed would help the recovery of gynaecology waiting lists and improve care for women.

• Report
• Press releae

 

Empowering ICBs: a blueprint for fixing the NHS

Bright Blue -

This report offers policy recommendations to strengthen integrated care boards (ICBs) in four areas: the funding of ICBs; performance measurement of ICBs; governance and involvemnt of ICBs; and supporting ICBs that are ‘lighthouses’.

• Report
• Bright Blue - press release

A mission for lung health

Asthma + Lung UK -
The government has identified three shifts needed to improve the NHS: from sickness to prevention; hospital to community care; and analogue to digital. This report outlines how getting respiratory care right will help the government achieve these goals.

• Report
• Asthma + Lung UK - publications