Professor Bernard Crump, CEO of the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement has called for NHS clinicians and managers to find solutions that are "smarter and more innovative", in response to comments made about the likely impact of the next spending review. He said:“We all know that the recent pace of growth in funding for health services will not continue. But we must clear up any misconception that there’s a conflict between increasing quality and static budgets."
"People tend to think that increasing quality has a cost implication: but in fact, in our experience, productivity and quality go hand in hand. Right first time, high quality clinical services are the most cost effective. When NHS Trusts invest time into finding new and better ways of doing things, they tend to identify productivity savings as a by-product."
He cited the example of the Productive Ward programme, which was designed to help ward staff free up more time for nursing staff to spend with their patients. Savings are estimated to be more than 10% – not as a result of staff cuts, but from staff empowerment, improved morale, less sickness absence and lower reliance on agency staff.
“NHS trusts still have time before 2011 to find the quality improvements which will unlock productivity savings that will most benefit their patients," he continued. “It may be that the ‘golden days’ of ever increasing funding for the NHS will soon come to an end but this is the start of a new era where innovation and improvement will go hand in hand with increasing efficiency. The key is to start now: identifying what innovation and improvement programmes are getting the best results and supporting frontline staff to adapt them to suit local issues."
