News Elective care | Inequalities | Policy | Strategy Development
Helping ICSs to reduce inequalities in access to planned care
Are there inequalities in access to planned care? If so, what are they? Which groups ‘gain’ and which groups suffer? And what could be done to address any inequalities? In pursuing their objective of reducing inequalities, what could Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) do? What strategies and approaches are likely to be successful?
News
Blog: Strategies to reduce inequalities in planned care
MDSN responds to recent reports addressing the NHS waiting list crisis
News Futures thinking
‘Might’ is right
A good idea can be ruined by over-selling.
News Elective care | Inequalities
Strategies to reduce inequalities in access to planned hospital procedures
UPDATE 10th August: Now including briefing note for Integrated Care Boards on legal duties in respect of reducing inequalities. This report guides ICBs through the process.
News
Appointing an ICS ‘Chief Analyst’
The Strategy Unit has, over the last ten years, developed a way of working that has allowed us to become recognised as a leading analytical organisation in the NHS.
News Better use of analysis
‘Developing your ICS Intelligence Functions’: A Free Webinar Series
What is an ‘Intelligence Function’? What value can they add to decision making? How can they be configured and who needs to be involved? What lessons can be drawn from current practice?
Blog post
Treating people on waiting lists: who decides what is fair?
Waiting lists for elective care are in the news. The national plan has been issued, with the expectation that lists will continue to rise for some years - and that long waiting will not disappear anytime soon. Addressing this ‘backlog’ will remain a fundamental challenge for some time to come.
News Better use of analysis | Futures thinking | Learning and development
Decision makers can make much better use of analysis
Part of the Strategy Unit mission is to improve the use of analysis in decision making. Current use is, to employ a euphemism, variable.
Blog post Primary, community and social care services
Securing the future of domiciliary care
The Strategy Unit is embarking on an exciting project with WM ADASS, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Care Services in the West Midlands to explore the challenges facing domiciliary care and the opportunities that exist to transform and improve the service.
News Better use of analysis | Comparative Analysis | Elective care | Finance and payments | Problem Structuring
Strategy Unit devises a new method for classifying outpatient appointments
The number of outpatient attendances in England is now approaching 100 million each year.
Blog post Complex Modelling | Emergency care | Inequalities
Strategy Unit analysis published showing changes in use of emergency departments under lockdown
We know that patterns of access to healthcare have changed during the pandemic.
News Elective care | Emergency care | Evaluation and impact assessment | Mental health | Primary, community and social care services
Evaluating Artificial Intelligence: a significant new win
The Strategy Unit, the Health Economics Unit and Leicester Clinical Trials Unit have been announced as evaluation partners to support success in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Health and Care Awards.
Blog post
A learning NHS and ‘black box’ analysis aren’t compatible
Data analysis presents a limitless opportunity to improve decision making within the NHS.
Blog post Futures thinking | Policy
The bigger picture
Today, the Health Foundation launched the REAL Centre (Research and Economic Analysis for the Long term), an incredibly important initiative to imp
Blog post
Have cuts to public spending on social care for older people led to more emergency hospital admissions?
Cuts to council social care budgets are often cited as a cause of pressure on NHS urgent and emergency care services. Much of the evidence supporting this link, however, is anecdotal. We set out to try and quantify the effect of cuts to social care on older people’s use of emergency healthcare services, and our research has just been published in BMJ Open.
Blog post
Why community alternatives to hospital admission don’t (typically) reduce total admission levels
Repeatedly, published evaluations show that community/primary care services interventions with a stated intention to reduce total (or forecast total) emergency admissions to hospital don’t achieve the expected result**
Blog post
New Perspectives on the Perennial Problem of Urgent Care
Waiting times in A&E are never far from the headlines. It threatens to become the defining healthcare performance issue of our time
Blog post Better use of analysis | Problem Structuring
Part of the solution or part of the problem? Management Consultants and the NHS
I was quoted in a recent Guardian newspaper article which described a London Clinical Commissioning Group’s wasteful use of external
Blog post
Do you like to integrate horizontally or vertically? NHS positions examined
Our latest research paper explores the impact of the different options for integration implemented as a result of the Transforming Community Services policy in 2010. This accompanying commentary reflects on potential implications for the current policy drive towards Integrated Care Systems.