Returning the UK NHS to full Health

Contrary to what you may have read in the media, the NHS is changing.

There’s a revolution afoot in the NHS. Its aim is to build a more productive, efficient, patient-led health service that offers people more control over their health and care.

The NHS is moving towards a more transparent health service, one that offers patients a level of information and choice. Eventually, just as parents select a school based on its published academic standard, so patients will also make informed choices about where and by whom they will be treated, leading to a more responsive and relevant health service.

A greater focus on improved service will be felt in local services. The National Patient Experience Survey aims to help understand, in patients’ eyes, how well government priorities in primary care are being implemented. Results from this survey will directly impact further changes to patient access and choice delivered by the NHS.

Rising to the challenge

Another significant issue is the need to balance multiple aims. Faced with constant demand, the health service must strike the right balance between delivering service and getting patients treated and discharged. Too much focus on efficiency could see a drop in service. Too much focus on service results in increased treatment time, leading to reduced productivity and longer waiting lists.

Continuous improvement of care is difficult to balance too. How do you trial new care delivery methods when the hospital is permanently busy? The extra work, disruption to existing services and possibility of failure mean that many NHS organisations reluctantly shy away from developing services.

Healthcare also constantly faces a number of outside pressures. There are changes in staff, training, drugs, equipment, data, treatments, service delivery, relationships with GPs and the link with the private sector. On top of this is pressure from a constant and varied patient list, from policy makers and budget holders, as well as internal and external targets.

Needless to say not everybody involved will agree on the best way forward for their patient groups, leading to the drawn out process of communal decision-making.

And then there’s cost. The NHS feels the constant expectation of a government that has given it record amounts of funding from taxes. As resources tighten, the whole sector must lower costs and meet efficiency targets while maintaining, if not enhancing, standards of care.

Making change happen

A central part of this is enabling healthcare professionals to access patient information safely, securely and easily – whenever it’s needed. By supporting healthcare procedures, and grouping outcomes data, patients get the information needed to make a choice about their care provision.

The specialist IT sector has a responsibility to support healthcare providers by ensuring delivery of facilities and infrastructure that let clinicians and managers respond to pressures and change the way services are accessed. During all this, the patient remains at the heart of everything they do.

Key to this are new approaches to healthcare including:

• Enabling the secure sharing of patient information via electronic NHS Care Records
• Eliminating dependency on physical medical records, so moving from a siloed approach towards the integration of systems in departments such as pharmacy, pathology and radiology using electronic services including test ordering and care planning
• Storing, accessing and transmitting digital x-rays and other diagnostic imaging
• Issuing electronic prescriptions with consequent improvements in processing and safety checks

Fujitsu works with the NHS to help bring more efficiency into healthcare delivery. One example is the ‘clinical process design’ method. This uses a lean approach to healthcare, eliminating wasted effort while still utilising what’s already in place, rather than reinventing a whole new system.

Our wide experience in the public sector means we also help with programme management and change management processes to improve the flow of patients, overcoming disruptions and bottlenecks. And because we take a whole process approach, we can look beyond the boundaries of a single health provider to take in social care and other agencies.

All of this plays a crucial part in providing vital support for the evolving healthcare industry.