07.07.15
‘Systems thinking’ must be scaled up in the NHS – Cumberland Initiative
One solution to many pressures facing the NHS can be found in a combination of maths, engineering and computer modelling, according to the Cumberland Initiative (CI).
The CI, which consists of a group of clinicians, professors and computer simulation companies, is calling on the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, to encourage much wider use of modelling in the NHS and say it should be embedded in health organisations across the UK.
To help develop more use of modelling the Cumberland Initiative is opening a ‘living lab’ for clinicians and health managers. The lab includes a mocked up A&E where clinicians and managers can try out different scenarios for making emergency departments more effective - without practising new ideas on sick patients in a busy hospital.
The ‘CumberLab’ aims to be a national test bed for NHS innovation and opened for business on 6 July in Slough.
Co-founder of the CI Terry Young, Professor of Healthcare Systems at Brunel University said: “Modelling is the difference between being surprised and being prepared. It would transform the quality of care, the cost of care, the sustainability of care, and the dialogue with patients, and could even spawn whole new sectors of our economy.“
The Aneurin Bevan University Health Board in Wales has already got fourth maths modellers permanently working on projects that any staff can suggest. In what’s believed to be a first they have just begun a large project which combines different modelling methods - including patients’ own stories - to understand why so many people are arriving at A&E in Gwent and how they can manage it better in the future.
CI added that maths, modelling and computer simulation do exist in the NHS, but their use is fragmented and the results are rarely implemented. The CI say this ‘systems thinking’ needs to be scaled up across the UK, so best practice can be shared, rather than just being championed by one enthusiastic doctor or CEO in one hospital trust.
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