NHS

NHS Mediocrity

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Fri, 03/08/2013 - 09:31

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Mediocrity

The NHS is mediocre, Jeremy Hunt will say today, and show that it costs lives.  But he's not the first person.

In 2003, Kate Silvester (Lean Thinking Hawk for the NHS) told us that "at any one time, 30% of waste and inefficiency can be taken out of the health service".  She was right, but it needs some context.

1) Dedication of Staff

Transforming Community Services (TCS) – 1. Strategic Planning

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Sun, 01/13/2013 - 14:59

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Assessing Needs

Transforming Community Services (TCS) is about taking services where patients and service users have to travel, and bringing them into the community and into people’s homes.

The effects are twofold:

  1. people tend make more use of the service, because they don’t have to travel, which means they gain the benefits of prevention rather than late remedial treatment
  2. Healthcare delivered in or near patient own home avoids “hotel fees” (cost of food and bed in hospital)

This page looks specifically at the first part of TCS - and the examples used are Healthcare.  The principles apply to all sectors

Dogma and Disarray

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Sun, 01/06/2013 - 09:44

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Dogma & Disarray

Have you wondered whether the disruption to NHS is incompetence, or deliberate?  Polly Toynbee and David Walker have an opinion, and they've put that opinion into a book.

The argument is purely polemic.  It doesn't attempt to win over government supporters, only to explain to Cameron's opponents what they are up against.  They describe an ugly chimera of Thatcherite brain, liberal Tory heart, and Europhobic limbs, not so much a monster as a series of disembodied body parts held together by the suit they are inside.

NHS beds light up Tunisia's hospitals

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Mon, 07/30/2012 - 21:05

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Hospital BedsGood news - the hospital beds from the Danny Boyle Olympic spectacular aren't going to waste - they are going to be donated to hospitals in Tunisia.

Health and Care Improvement

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Sun, 06/17/2012 - 13:39

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NHS - best in the world!The UK health service is one of the best on planet earth.  

Why then do we talk it down and find so many opportunities for improvement?

Because technology (medical, care pathways, equipment) and understanding (what we know, how we know what causes what) is moving at such a pace that what was cutting edge last year has been replaced by the new cutting edge.

Is the NHS Cost-effective?

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Tue, 11/01/2011 - 16:55

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Commonwealth Fund chart

What is the best way to know if NHS is effective and efficient?  And in particular, how do we know what reforms are needed and how we should bring them about?

I've pulled out a number of reports which compare NHS historically, and with other countries, to decide if it is effective and if not, what we need to do about it

Benefits Management to support Public Service organisations

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 21:16

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How to help people motivate themselvesMy mission is that everyone will enjoy and be passionate about what they do.

(with Haiku)

U-turns and the future for NHS

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Fri, 07/08/2011 - 09:47

31 years of Thatcherism What is the future for NHS, given all the U-turns?  Will we see Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), and what will they really be like?  What role does the House of Commons Parliamentary Health Select Committee have in all of this?  NHS has certain challenges . . .

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NHS in England is poised for reform

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Sun, 10/10/2010 - 10:00

ben_franklin.jpg

The cycle of NHS reform has come around again, just about on time. Past history shows that the whole thing is reorganised every three or four years . We don't know if it does any good, because it's never left alone for long enough to find out1. Is this time any different?

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More for your money? Private healthcare vs Publicly funded

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Mon, 03/08/2010 - 22:26

Life expectancy vs %GDP health spend
Which is better - private funding or public? Which gives a better outcome for the individual (* clinical outcome, * user experience, * cost-effective, * sustainable) and is there a clear picture?
One way to examine this question is to look at different countries in the world and see what works for them.  I tackle this in the latest blog on Technorati.

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Comments

Recent Additions and Updates

If I were running the country - encouraging business

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Tue, 05/21/2013 - 09:33

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Minimum wage

Fantasy government - what would I do if I were in government?  Well how about reduce corporation tax, increase income tax, increase minimum wage and invest in job creation in the regions?  That would be a good start - create jobs where there are workers, then make sure that the right amount of tax is collected and at the same time reduce spend on benefits which are only used to increase profits of selfish organisations.

Would it work?  Have your say.

PwC Report on the Current State of Project Management

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Fri, 05/17/2013 - 10:44

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PwC Project Management ReportPwC found that successful companies are getting more mature in their project management ability.  This raises the game – successful companies have lower costs from fewer failed projects, and less successful companies have to work harder to catch up.  There are some important lessons to take this report for everyone – Read more…

Joy instead of tedium

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Fri, 05/10/2013 - 21:04

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The Office

Every office has them - the tasks that have to be done that nobody likes doing.  Whether it's the audit, the wages, standard letters, whatever it is - someone has to do it and it feels like a waste of time and money.

Why should you care?

So you employ somebody, so why do you care about how tedious the task is? Well they are costing money, to do something that could be done far more effectively.

Learning from the Past

Submitted by HugoM on Fri, 05/10/2013 - 20:27

Evidence for service improvement

Many public service changes have little basis in evidence. Their success (or otherwise) does not appear to depend on how 'good' the policy itself is, but rather on how it has been implemented. This relies on staff attitudes and relationships. My research falls into a number of broad categories: finding out what is currently happening; what people think about it; and what people think it will mean.

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Consumer Price Index (CPI) Calculator for SROI

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Tue, 04/16/2013 - 10:05

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CPI components

When calculating a Social Return on Investment (SROI) evaluation or SROI forecast , sometimes you have to rely on published figures from reports.  But if these are from a few years ago, then they probably need adjusting for inflation.

There are calculators on the web to do this for you, but I found them cumbersome and it was difficult to keep a record of what calculator I'd used, and how, for which value - auditability and transparency is vital for SROI.  So here's a spreadsheet to do this properly!

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