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Art of the Possible
As part of our ‘What If’ series on change in the NHS, we spoke to Transformation and Turnaround Director, Amanda Ramsay-Dunn and asked her: “Putting all politics aside, if you could change one thing about the NHS, what would it be?”
If I could change one thing…
Whenever I support an organisation with the development of their savings programme, it is very rare to find an associated commercial strategy that demonstrates how the Trust will develop and grow other income streams. This seems to be an area that some larger teaching hospitals have developed very well. For example UCHL are a prime example of a Trust that is consistently innovating and growing. It is developing a specialist treatment centre using alternative ways of working, such as Special Purpose Vehicles or Joint Venture arrangements.
It has a research facility that develops new strategic partnerships with big commercial organisations.
It is also a member of Healthcare UK which is a DH department that help UK healthcare providers to do more business overseas, through the promotion of the UK healthcare sector to overseas markets and by enabling healthcare partnerships between the UK and overseas healthcare providers.
Now this may be fine for a large Trust such as UCHL but each Trust could apply smaller ambitions and goals to their ways of working. For example, strategic alliances with outside commercial partners can assist with reviewing current ways of working, sharing of resources and accessing some of the latest advances and current thinking. Joint working with other health providers to “sweat assets” can reduce waiting lists. It could simply be the hiring of rooms and premises (where appropriate) to the commercial sector for meetings and training course provision. Other possibilities include expanding any innovation that has been developed, such as apps, to create additional revenue sources or the sharing of good practice around joint working with clinicians to develop private patient clinics or facilities. These don’t have to be inpatient facilities but could include cosmetic clinics that could run over the weekends.
If each Trust worked with their clinicians to discover the “art of the possible”, it would engender new ways of working and the creation of transformed service provision that may stretch far and wide and will enable the creation of a continuous improvement culture, which in turn will lead to a more efficient organisation.
About Amanda
Amanda has significant experience and knowledge across the health sector and her key skills are focused around transformation, service design and end to end pathways re-design. Amanda is an approved Turnaround Director and has led large-scale transformation programmes across several organisations, both from a commissioning and provider perspective. She has managed complex partnerships and is an experienced Board-level Director.
About Practicus
Practicus provides problem solving and recruitment. To find out more about the company, see here
