As the NHS prepares itself for budget cuts – with £20 billion needing to be slashed over just a few years – the healthcare industry needs to find cost savings without affecting front-line services or staff morale.
CHRIS LLOYD believes that Lean management methodologies can help Trusts to achieve this goal.
The task ahead is incredibly large and without the right frame of mind, it will be near impossible. The Government, in its white paper, Liberating the NHS,1 suggests that patient care is still a top priority, that it will free staff from excessive bureaucracy and top-down control and will increase real terms spending on the health service in every year of this Parliament. Its hope is to once again make the NHS the envy of the world. While this is a distant thought, there are ways in which methodologies such as Lean can help improve the rate at which patients are seen and cared for. Lean can increase productivity which saves money – making the gap between the current state of the NHS and the goals of the Government closer than once perceived. While the rush to reduce is necessary, the NHS should take a step back and look at the processes that can be removed to avoid making further redundancies or increasing pressure on staff.
Saving millions in healthcare Trusts
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