The UK government pioneered the use of competitive tendering of public services in the 1980s, when Margaret Thatcher was prime minister. In the decades since, as outsourcing has expanded and other governments around the world have sought to copy some of its practices, the UK should have become better at negotiating and managing such contracts.
The NHS five year forward view, published in October 2014 set out a view for the future to ensure sustainability of healthcare services and economic prosperity with strong emphasis for the following: a. Radical upgrade in activist prevention and public health b. Removal of barriers between family doctors and physicians, between physical and mental health and between health and social care with significant localised or community-based care delivery supported by specialised centres c. Shared budgets and combining health and social care
In year 2007 the proportion of private hospitals revenue from NHS referrals was under 10% when the Labour government gave people right to choose to be treated in a private hospital and to be paid for by the state. The purpose of policy change was to to improve patient care. As a result and surge in public private partnership arrangements, the private operators now earn approximately 25% of their income from NHS, an increase from £700m to £3.1bn. In 2016/17, 70% of NHS England contracts were won by private sector.
In face of major advances in medicine and technology, healthcare regularly fails to live up to the patient expectations in providing the high quality of care with clinical effectiveness and customer-centric patient journeys. The urgent need to transform the care delivery is well embraced around the world. but the journey is notoriously difficult and require discipline, resilience, bold and sustained commitment, and patience.
The transformation that’s needed in healthcare can be overwhelming and necessitate substantial investments in finance, technology, human capital, operations, infrastructure, substantial disinvestment of legacy resources, redesign of workflows and pathways, and enhancement of collaboration across the system.
Nations failing to invest in health and education are at risk of stagnating economies and lower per capita GDP, according to the first-ever scientific study ranking countries for their levels of human capital. US drops from 6th to 27th, China jumps from 69th to 44th, Turkey from 102nd to 43rd, South Korea from 18th to 6th, and Singapore from 43rd to 13th.
The private provision of publicly funded health care in the UK which is a matter of public controversy. There are strongly stated concerns regarding the increasing use of non-publicly owned, especially for-profit, firms to provide services: concerns that the NHS is being undermined, that future services will be at risk or even that health care that is free at the point of delivery – a key tenet of the NHS – is about to be abandoned.
Michael Porter said, "biggest problem with health care isn’t with insurer or politics. it’s that we’re measuring the wrong things the wrong way." Much of the rapid escalation in healthcare costs can be attributed to the fact that providers have an almost complete lack of understanding of how much it costs to deliver patient care. thus they lack the knowledge necessary to improve resource utilization, reduce delays, and eliminate activities that don’t improve outcomes.
Whether it’s business innovation, employee engagement or everyday productivity, technology promises to do it all. But amidst the limitless possibilities, leaders can find themselves uncertain on the benefits of certain technologies, how to focus their investments and how to get their people on board with change.
Get in touch with us or Find an office closest to you
