100 days is plenty to make meaningful change in the NHS
We want to be realistic about change, we know that nothing happens overnight. However, 100 days is different. With coordination, determination and the right people making informed decisions based on real data: change can happen. Without the need for additional resources (rooms, equipment or people), embracing a source of true data for procedural durations, cancellations, non-attendance situations, and late start reasons – Inform People’s THRIVE module has seen hospitals across the North West increase their delivery of Endoscopy services and set the stage for national waiting list improvements.
The recent Labour party pledge to ‘create 40,000 extra appointments’, whilst ambitious, is reliant on a myriad of factors. We believe that by using data to inform changes to operational efficiency, hospitals will be able to perform many more operations, scans and appointments. The key comes from knowing the existing capacity; how it is allocated and how it is either used, or not. Within this, there is the need to evaluate any untapped opportunities that can be utilised at individual sites and at scale too.
Understanding capacity and knowing the causes of any bottlenecks, by analysing the way that disciplines use their resources, is only the first step. From this point, adjustments must be made, tested and reported on consistently to start to fit in additional procedures. Sharing these improvements as widely as possible will then provide similar improvements to other disciplines that can benefit from local experiences. From this, every benefit gained should be part of a national conversation that boosts productivity and bolsters the NHS as a whole.
When there is no one-size-fits-all response to making these gains, there needs to be an openness to changes being tested and importantly rejected if they don’t make a difference. In cases such as this the idea of ‘failing fast’ comes into play where the figures and data reflect reality.
How do you know that Inform People’s THRIVE product can have a positive impact?
Using data (captured by THRIVE) to locate opportunities for additional capacity, even if this is just finding time for one extra procedure per hospital per week (930 x 52) the UK could be looking at completing an additional 48,360 procedures annually. This is considering only Endoscopy too. If this is expanded to each room in each hospital, each discipline and department would be able to tackle a vast quantity of their targets.
Inform People are looking to expand into the following departments following the THRIVE model: Cardiology, Respiratory, Audiology, Ophthalmology, Chemotherapy.
If these departments are able to increase productivity the way that existing THRIVE clients have been able to, with no need to train extra staff or build additional rooms, the benefits can be realised quickly AND additional resources can be better targeted. Taking this one simple step would be a huge step towards the annual targets laid out by Labour and could be achieved at scale and with expediency.
Inform People have no particular political leaning but are huge supporters of the NHS and all that it can achieve. We want to do our part to see the end of the national emergency in waiting times and want to help the current government as much as possible as part of the greater good of life in the UK.
