Providers call for realism with five tests for NHS plan

03 October 2018 Seamus Ward

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In a briefing, Five tests for the NHS long-term plan, the provider body said the plan, due to be published in the coming months, should:

  • Be centred around patients, service users, carers and families
  • Be realistic and deliverable
  • Be underpinned by a credible and sustainable workforce strategy
  • Lay the groundwork for a sustainable high-performing service

Support local good governance, autonomy and accountability.

It said the long-term plan must address the realities of frontline health and social care – including the provider deficit of almost £1bn at the end of 2017/18; an ageing infrastructure misaligned with care needs; and an 8% staff vacancy rate. It should recognise increasing demand for health and care and set out how the system will meet this. The plan will work only if the government adequately funds the sector.

Trusts must have a clear implementation plan, with trajectories to recover their financial and operational performance – and performance requirements must be fully funded, it added.

These should be accompanied by realistic assumptions on productivity and efficiency gains, demand management and the speed and scale at which benefits can be released from transformation programmes.

The long-term plan must recognise that further productivity and efficiency gains in the NHS will only be realised through investment in improvement projects rather than non-recurrent sources or by salami-slicing services.

Technology offers the NHS an opportunity to improve patient care and outcomes, and to improve productivity and efficiency. The long-term plan should be ambitious in its plans for technology and ensure they are fully funded.

A new financial architecture should ensure more is spent on care and delivery is sustainable. The framework should also help the NHS make long-term investment decisions, NHS Providers added.

The briefing said a transformation blueprint should offer sufficient investment and allow for double-running. This would take account of capacity and capability to push on with transformation given the current workforce and operational delivery pressures.
Chris Hopson

NHS Providers chief executive Chris Hopson (pictured) said the plan offered an opportunity to adapt and improve the NHS, though the scale of the task should not be underestimated.

‘The plan must confront the reality of growing demand for treatment as a result of our older, growing, population and the increasing number of people living with long-term conditions,’ he said. ‘We must have a plan that honestly sets out how we will work together as a health and care system to cope with this demand.

‘The plan must also reset what is asked of providers so that the vast majority of trusts, performing well, can return to being successful in delivering the care that patients and the public expect. Assumptions about what can be achieved, and how quickly, must be realistic.’