NHS England has published a letter penned by NHSE’s chief delivery officer and national director for system development, highlighting a need for optimisation of the NHS system, “greater clarity” around what every part of the NHS is accountable for, and emphasising intentions to follow the Darzi report guidance to shift from analogue to digital methods.
Four actions are set out to guide a refresh of the current operating framework: to simplify and reduce duplication with clarified roles and responsibilities; to shift resources, time and energy to neighbourhood health; to devolve decision-making to those best-placed to make changes with clarification on the role of integrated care partnerships; and to enable leaders to manage complexity at local level.
The letter states a desire to see “self-managing, self-improving systems”, and notes the importance of integrated care boards in delivering strategic shifts from analogue to digital, treatment to prevention and hospital to community. “We want systems to be empowered,” the letter adds, “and our goal is to give more freedoms for the top performers” – specifically those reported to be improving population health, reducing inequalities, delivering high patient satisfaction and utilising resources in an effective manner.
The letter can be read in full here.
News from NHS England
Earlier this week we highlighted guidance from NHSE for ICBs around assessing the effectiveness of information and using it insightfully to streamline performance and support continuous improvement, setting out the role of using information to detect early warning signs around quality or performance issues.
Last week, HTN reported on NHSE’s roadmap for the Organisation Data Service and upcoming projects planned for delivery; and we also noted how NHSE opened a market engagement stage, ahead of an upcoming NHS Cyber Risk Rating Platform tender, designed to support NHS organisations to “better understand their security posture” and their management of threats that could impact on operations and organisational data.
In addition, late October saw NHSE share plans around the expansion of the ‘Tiger Teams’ service – designed to provide an “experienced, multi-skilled, rapid response intervention service” for EPR delivery – with the aim of reducing the risk of poor EPR deployment.
HTN explored the Darzi report with a detailed focus on digital here; examined responses from across the industry here; and you can also join us for our virtual panel today at 11am, in which health tech professionals discuss the Darzi report and what needs to happen to address the challenges highlighted within.
