North West London NHS Trust has published its five-year strategy this month, developed to respond to the changing needs of its local community, with a “major focus on tackling local health inequalities”.
It sets out five strategic priorities, to focus on collaboration and system leadership; population health, inequalities and co-production; putting people first; innovation in service development and delivery; and aiming for outstanding.
Carolyn Regan, chief executive, opens the strategy: “Our next chapter will require agility, tenacity for innovation and clear-sighted ambition in order to improve the care and support to service users and enhance the ways in which we interact with our wider communities.”
The strategy follows a recent survey with stakeholders, where the findings identified the need to improve access, increase the emphasis on community-based care, support clinical collaboration and innovation, develop and monitor meaningful metrics, be data-driven and evidence led, and further progress of the integration of physical and mental health.
It emphasises the priority for innovation in service development and delivery, noting the need to “embed a culture which promotes and supports innovation and continuous improvement”.
For fostering innovation, the trust outlines the need to develop new and innovative ways of working, embed the principles of continuous quality improvement, and establish the trust’s profile as a leader in research and innovation. Some of the priorities here are to improve the use of data, and its digital and informatics infrastructure and capacity.
As part of this, there is focus to encourage staff to explore improvements, as well as harnessing digital solutions and technology to improve choice, access and quality of the care. The strategy outlines to standardise the use of easily accessible data and dashboards to support improvement of services, embed a systematic approach to innovation, and measure success by new innovations and technologies adopted.
The strategy also notes the need for the development and implementation of provider collaboratives and other new models of care. Here, it highlights necessity for “improved, timely and equitable access to our services for all our diverse communities” and “providing care close to home”.
Population health management is a key theme throughout, with the use of data, clinical and user insight to target “resources where they will have the most impact” highlighted. In addition, emphasis is placed upon working with system partners to improve system efficiencies and productivity, in addition to co-producing and delivering “high-quality, responsive care, tackling inequalities and focusing on the needs of our vulnerable and at-risk communities”.
