18.06.14
NHS should learn from supermarket business models, claims Reform
The NHS should adopt the same type of thinking that has cut costs and improved quality in grocery retail, high street retail, supermarkets and car manufacturing, according to a new report from think-tank Reform.
Produced by Professor Paul Corrigan and co-author Mike Parish, CEO of the independent health company Care UK, the report warns that the NHS is currently in the grip of two crises of “affordability” and “quality”.
It has also been suggested that “protectionism” and “political conservatism” have stifled market-driven improvement of services in the NHS.
The authors argued that the NHS should not rely on extra funding to deliver more patient care, but new business and service models should be adopted – as they have in other sectors of the economy – to create value in new ways, while tackling the challenges of cost and quality.
Within the – Going with change: Allowing new models of healthcare to be provided for NHS
Patients – report, it was suggested that NHS hospitals should learn from Tesco and Sainsbury’s which have developed a “hub-and-spoke” model of larger superstores working with smaller local outlets.
Both the authors have recommended that hospitals and GPs should embrace methods commonly used by retail chains such as harnessing data from loyalty cards and online access to build their knowledge of patients.
Prof Corrigan, who was a special advisor to Labour health secretaries Alan Milburn and Dr John Reid, and later a policy advisor to Mr Blair, said: “In the next decade independent companies and third sector organisations must be allowed and encouraged to work with new NHS organisations to deliver the majority of health services for NHS patients.
“Simply finding more money for the health service is not the answer. Instead the NHS needs to learn from those sectors of the economy that have cut costs and improved quality.”
It has been suggested that within the next decade, new service models from within the public or the independent sector will make major changes to the way nearly 75% of NHS hospitals and GP practices operate.
For instance, new models of integrated care, such as the contract for musculo-skeletal services in Bedfordshire recently won by Circle in partnership with public and third sector organisations, will have replaced 50% of NHS services. A new model of internet-based care, which will emerge at around 2018, will have replaced 20% of services. Traditional organisations are expected to provide the majority of the remaining 30% of services.
NHS Confederation chief executive Rob Webster said: “When such highly respected thinkers as Prof Corrigan and Mike Parish set out their case for significant change in the NHS, then it is only right that we listen, digest and debate the points that they make.
“Corrigan and Parish suggest that political conservatism is paralysing the health service. We believe it is vital that politicians demonstrate the clear thinking and bold leadership that is essential to ensure the NHS is fit for the future. All across the country, there are examples of local organisations beginning to demonstrate the leadership required to make significant change. They need the backing of politicians to face up to the scale and seriousness of the change the health service needs.”
However, in the past, the British Medical Association and most of the medical royal colleges have been vocal opponents of further privatisation of the NHS. A BMA spokesperson said: “Opening the NHS to the private sector, as we've seen happen under the Health and Social Care Act, has led to a fragmentation of services when greater coordination across the health service is what's needed.
“Decisions on how services are delivered need to be clinically led, otherwise we'll end up with a system that puts profits before patients and competition before cooperation, all at the expense of patient care.”
A Department of Health spokesperson told NHE: “With an ageing population we need to embrace innovation and prevent fewer people getting ill in the first place. This means bridging the gap between GPs and hospitals, adopting new technologies and integrating health and social care.”
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