Today's Westminster Health Forum keynote seminar, Priorities for implementing the NHS Long Term Plan, 5th March 2019, highlighted the importance of engaging health and care practitioners, patients, and the public, to effectively cultivate a culture of change within the NHS.

Professor Paul Corrigan, Management Consultant and former senior prime ministerial health policy advisor, highlighted the importance of understanding in practice the relationship between the planners (those responsible for writing the plan) and the front line (the workforce that will deliver it).  This is an essential step towards cultivating a culture of change to ensure the future success of the NHS Long Term Plan. He went on to say that the million strong workforce must feel motivated to implement change, and he envisages that creating the narrative or story about the nature of what the changes are will go a long way towards achieving this. 

Niall Dickson, Chief Executive, NHS Confederation, emphasised that the drive for change is vital for the survival of the NHS because currently nearly half of all trusts in England are in deficit.  He noted that this is largely due to the period of austerity which began in 2009.  Other factors highlighted were the fact that originally the NHS was designed around GPs having long term relationships with families and a focus largely on physical health.  

According to Mr Dickson, there are key questions that will need to be addressed as the process moves forward:

• Will the plan enable the health and care system to transform whilst maintaining stability?
• Will the plan support and enable local system leaders to do their job?

Adrian Masters, Director of Strategy, Public Health England, noted the importance of identifying what the delivery change is on each individual programme.  He went on to highlight the need for establishing and building relationships with Local Authority teams.

"You'll be more successful and there will be increased benefits for patients."

Adrian Masters, Director of Strategy, Public Health England

Dr Karen Kirkham, Clinical Lead, Dorset Integrated Care System, Assistant Clinical Chair, Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group, and National Clinical Advisor, Primary Care, England, stated that the NHS Long Term Plan offers, "A huge opportunity to do things differently with the service redesign."  Most importantly, to join up primary and secondary care to improve consistent pathways of care.  In the last two years, Dorset have moved away from the payment by results system and have noticed that this has led to clinicians thinking more about the best use for the NHS pound. 

Sir Robert Francis, Chair, Healthwatch England, emphasized the importance of listening to people so that services can be planned and designed around them.  Patients need to be thought of as part of the solution, rather than part of the problem.  He highlighted that engaging patients at every stage of the journey is critical. 

"[It is] important to have people engaged at the beginning of the process of change, not just presenting them with a done deal and asking what they think about it. Putting the patient first is a mantra, but it must be made real.”

Sir Robert Francis, Chair, Healthwatch England

He revealed that NHS England have commissioned Healthwatch to consult with patients and the public to ensure their views on what matters to them on a local level are heard.  Healthwatch propose to achieve this by running initiatives including surveys and focus groups, and it is hoped that this will facilitate ongoing engagement in the plan.  The results will then be compiled to give a national picture.

Mike Bird of Patient Safety Learning, a charity set up to look at patient safety from a systems point of view, suggested that moving patient engagement from its current passive state to a more active role could have positive benefits.

"If patients are involved in governance, they can hold trusts accountable for their safety record.”

Mike Bird, Director of Business Development, Patient Safety Learning

There are a number of programmes currently running across the NHS looking to improve patient care.  Some of the initiatives spoken about at toda's event are highlighted below.

Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT)

A national programme designed to improve the quality of care within the NHS by tackling variations in the way that services are delivered across the NHS and sharing best practice between trusts.

Find out more on their website: https://gettingitrightfirsttime.co.uk/

The Sustainable Health and Care Campaign

The campaign promotes and supports sustainable health and care action, to improve the health and wellbeing of patients, staff and communities, save money for services and protect the environment and its resources for future generations.

Find out more on their website: https://www.sustainablehealthandcare.com/

NHS RightCare

The NHS RightCare teams work locally with systems across the NHS to diagnose the issues and identify the opportunities with data, evidence and intelligence.  They aim to develop solutions, guidance and innovation in order to deliver improvements for patients, populations and systems.

Find out more here: https://www.england.nhs.uk/rightcare/what-is-nhs-rightcare/

Professor Paul Corrigan reflected that, with the scale of change required for the rollout of the NHS Long Term Plan, introducing ideas at a time when organisations are needing to change is key to supporting adoption, "Finding the motivation and the moment is key.”

Post Contributor:

Caitriona Fitzsimons Digital Reporter