The report suggests that if the NHS is to save the £15-20bn needed over the next few years, making savings across existing services by doing more for less is unlikely to be sufficient.
It proposes a more radical approach, which gives genuine power to frontline staff, patients and the public to foster patient-centred service redesign and more effective approaches to public behaviour change. This builds on work with innovative private sector businesses, which shows that so called “user” and “open” innovation can develop better products and service at less cost than traditional approaches. This relies on a more collaborative approach, including drawing on innovations developed by customers.
In health, this means involving the public and users more in redesigning care and more effective prevention. They argue that this will generate significant and sustainable savings and improve outcomes, because patient-centred care is more effective and communities can be more effective at behaviour change. They also highlight the importance of self-care in relieving pressure on services and the role of technology in supporting self-care.
The report includes examples from across the NHS where innovative approaches have achieved significant benefits including:
- Birmingham OwnHealth a telephone –based self-care management service for patients with a range of chronic conditions
- Knowsley at Heart, a joint initiative between Knowsley PCT and Knowsley Council to bring down rates of heart disease and stroke
- NeuroResponse a new model of care for people with multiple sclerosis.
The report argues that government and the NHS should protect and extend innovative projects that are proving effective and reform projects that focus on the right issues but use the ‘wrong’ means. They suggest more should be done to advance the community ownership of services, exemplified in the Foundation Trust policy, giving more communities and patient groups a real stake in their services, and of clinical leadership, wherever possible giving clinicians control over budgets and management decisions.
To download the full report.