NHS Operational Productivity: GIRFT Meets Mental Health and Community Health Services (Lord Carter / DHSC)

Summary

Lord Carter’s latest report in the NHS Operational Productivity series shifts the attention to unwarranted variations in mental health and community health services. Potential savings of around £1 billion in efficiencies could be made by 2020/21, allegedly, if the recommendations in this document were to be implemented rigorously. The main section headings comprise:

• Chapter 1: Mental health and community health services.
• Chapter 2: Quality and efficiency across the pathway.
• Chapter 3: Engaging the workforce.
• Chapter 4: Optimising clinical resources in the community.
• Chapter 5: Optimising inpatient services and other clinical resources.
• Chapter 6: Optimising non-clinical resources.
• Chapter 7: Expanding the Model Hospital.
• Chapter 8: Securing effective implementation.

The principal 16 recommendations include:

1. Learning from new models of care.
2. Improving quality of care and Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT).
3. Driving standardisation in the community health services ‘offer’.
4. Improving the management of restricted patients.
5. Optimising workforce well-being and engagement.
6. Strengthening the oversight of workforce productivity for services delivered in the community.
7. Improving the productivity of the clinical workforce for services delivered in the community.
8. Monitoring the cost and efficiency of inpatient care and care hours per patient day.
9. Improving inpatient rostering and e-rostering.
10. Improving medical job planning.
11. Medicines and pharmacy optimisation.
12. Reducing variations in corporate services.
13. Benchmarking estates and facilities management.
14. Improving / benchmarking procurement practices.
15. Extending application of the Model Hospital framework.
16. Implementation of the above recommendations by NHS Improvement, NHS England, other national bodies and NHS Trusts.

Full Text Link

Reference

Lord Carter of Coles (2018). NHS operational productivity: unwarranted variations – mental health services and community health services. London: Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and NHS Improvement [Unbadged report; An independent report for the Department of Health by Lord Carter of Coles], May 24^th 2018.

There is also an Executive Summary.