Combining people, processes, and technology

Julia Fishman, managing director and vice-President, Clinical Strategy, at TeleTracking Technologies, discusses the in-use benefits of patient, staff, and asset tracking and flow technologies, arguing that their effective deployment across an NHS under considerable pressure on many fronts can free up more time to care, bring considerable cost and wider efficiencies, and help to address the perennial issue of ‘bed blocking’

Each day it seems that the NHS is making yet another news headline, whether it be missed A&E targets, poor integration of health and social care, or rising hospital bed occupancy levels. The reasons for many of these issues have been widely publicised, but at the heart of the problem is the fact that the NHS is having to deliver care to a growing population that is not only living longer, but also has more complex health needs than at any time in its history. 

Last year alone, over £140 billion was spent on the NHS across the UK – that is more than 10 times the amount spent over 60 years ago1 – and yet it is still not enough to provide the desired level of access and quality service to every patient. With an expectation to deliver efficiency savings of 2-3% per year, the pressure on the NHS to overcome its challenges is mounting. Lord Carter of Coles’ independent report, Operational Productivity and Performance in English NHS Hospitals: Unwarranted Variations,2 released in February 2016, delivered a review of efficiency in hospitals, and demonstrated how considerable savings can be made by the NHS. The report sets out to demonstrate how non-specialist acute Trusts can reduce unwarranted variation in productivity and efficiency across every area in the hospital to ultimately save the NHS £5 billion each year by 2021.