The IHM Download
The latest info from our CEO, Jill DeBene
Institute of Healthcare Management
Email: membership@ihm.org.uk
Website: www.ihm.org.uk
Location: 33 Cavendish Square, Soho, London, United Kingdom
Phone: 020 7182 4066
Twitter: @IHM_Tweets
Hello from Jill
The Biggest Question?
As Valentine’s Day approaches you may be forgiven for thinking the big question is “Will you be mine?” But no, the question I am thinking of is one that parents of small children hear every day and sometimes every minute why? It strikes me that in our careers we are sometimes so busy focusing on the what, how and when that we don’t stop to ask why?
On the Victoria Derbyshire show today she held her big NHS debate (you can follow the Tweets about this at #VictoriaLive) this included a discussion around Jeremy Hunt’s announcement that he is implementing a new law (from April) that means hospitals much check for eligibility of care before all non-urgent treatments (see link to article about this here https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/feb/06/hospitals-check-patients-entitled-free-nhs-care-law-jeremy-hunt).
To see what our members think we ran a survey today. The majority agreed that overseas visitors should pay for non-urgent healthcare (see later in newsletter for the results) but like me a number felt the announcement was not particularly surprising or new, so my question became, why? Is it part of a positioning ploy ahead of Brexit negotiations? Is it a distraction technique? Why do this and do it now? It may not become clear today but I will keep the why question with me and see what unfolds.
On Friday I had a truly inspiring conversation with Dr Helen Tucker who is the vice president of the Community Hospitals Association. In that conversation we talked about CHARM. CHARM is the Community Hospitals Association's Research and Media website (http://www.communityhospitalsresearch.org.uk/) dedicated to promoting research and good practice. Their mission is to share knowledge of community hospitals in order to continually improve community hospital services for patients, families and whole communities.
This knowledge can also help to inform decision-making on planning, providing, developing and commissioning healthcare. There are 367 community hospitals in England according to the latest dataset from the Community Hospitals Association. All of the community hospitals would have had an inpatient facility when they were established by local people pre-NHS. Now it is estimated that over 70 community hospitals have had their community beds closed and many have had bed numbers reduced. In 2001, the CHA recorded figures of over 13,000 beds in community hospitals. In less than 20 years, this number has dropped to around 8,000.
The STPs and supporting proposals across England set out transformational change, and a pattern is emerging for further changing community hospital provision. The pattern is to reduce the number of community hospitals overall (closing a number of buildings completely), re-designating a number of the remaining community hospitals as “hubs” without beds, and then focusing community hospital provision in a select few locations.
Now, I don’t know if this is a good thing or not at this stage but I want to find out. I want to understand the why. Helen and I both admitted that sometimes in our early careers in the NHS, and associated organisations, we flung ourselves into delivering the what but hadn’t really understood the why. So on 15th or 16th March, in Bristol, we will be holding a day of discovery to answer some of the why’s around community hospitals and their place in the health of communities going forward. If you are involved in this area as a provider or commissioner, please let me know if you would like to join this workshop by e-mailing events@ihm.org.uk.
Finally, today I have been at a Mental Health Trust in London. I have been helping them address some major change programmes and understanding the stakeholder engagement required. Because of their increased understanding of engagement, they have been able to implement a successful programme that under their previous approaches would not have been successful. Why was this? Because they have allowed the why into their culture and started to look at the why or ‘what’s in it for me? from everyone’s view point to understand impact and how to engage properly.
As we found with our research into “Swimming together or sinking alone – Health, care and the art of system leadership” people don’t want to feel they are being told about something when it is too late to ask why? They want to understand the why up front. The want to feel they can help shape and truly understand what is happening. Otherwise they will feel like our children when we have just too many whys and we revert to the standard “because I said so!”.
We have the first of our two IHM strategy days this week and why we do what we do will be a major discussion point. We will share the outcomes of this first session in next week's download.
Annual Conference - Name change!
Foreign Nationals Check - Survey Results
While only 7.9% of you disagreed with the idea, the majority of the comments stated that while the idea makes sense in principle the administration costs of actually putting this into practice need to be quantified to understand whether it really will make savings.
Common comments and question include themes such as;
- How many non-eligible patients are actually 'non-urgent'? Is it really that large a number.
- How will we fund the processing of this as it could be millions of passport checks a year?
- This is just a diversion announcement and will result in much more work for hospitals for very little gain.
- How will it work in practice? Require every patient to come in and show someone their ID? Who will check? Where does the money for the admin come from?
- Why can't we take this issue away from the hospital and ensure everyone visiting the UK has insurance as part of their visa check?
- Will the NHS actually see this money back or will it just be taken away as 'savings'?
Overall, as is usually the case with health announcements, more detail is needed before we can be fully sure how this will work and whether it is actually achievable.
Digitising Child Health In London
Alison Golightly, Child Health Information Consultant, NHS Digital and Dan Moulin, eRedbook Project Director will be providing an update on the strategy and work to launch eRedbook in London.
We invite you to join us for an interesting evening of learning, discussion and networking. We look forward to seeing you there.
For more information and tickets please check out our Eventbrite page - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/digitising-child-health-in-london-tickets-31505835803
Thursday, Feb 23, 2017, 05:30 PM
The Admiralty, Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom
New NHS Improvement Award
Get your hands on some cash for professional development!
Clinicians and managers can now apply for a new annual award designed to help and inspire the NHS leaders of tomorrow to improve services for patients.
The the Sir Peter Carr Award is a £30,000 award which will be made to a clinician and manager partnership (£15,000 each) to invest in their professional development over a year to support the delivery of a shared improvement objective.
Both the winners and partnerships shortlisted for the award (up to five in total) will also receive access to a range of support including mentoring, networks, personal development and improvement skill-building and opportunities to attend events during the year.
The award is open to clinician and manager partnerships working in NHS trusts and foundation trusts in England. Applications will need support from the trust's chief executive and trusts will only be able to submit one application per organisation.
To apply for the award, please read the supporting guidance first and request an application form by emailing nhsi.sirpetercarraward@nhs.net.
You have until 14 March to apply. Please email any questions through to nhsi.sirpetercarraward@nhs.net.
IHM Student Event 2017
Our new student date has been confirmed!
For more information see our Eventbrite page;
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ihm-student-event-2017-london-tickets-31848575948
Tuesday, Mar 21, 2017, 11:00 AM
The Admiralty, Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom
FULL EVENTS LIST
Manchester
Bristol
Leeds
Newcastle
Norwich
Oxford
Birmingham
Swansea
Belfast
Devon
Brighton
These will be across the next 6 months depending on the diaries of our chosen speakers. Each event will be released as soon as it is booked and will be free for members.
If you would like to help host and arrange a regional event in your area please e-mail events@ihm.org.uk