The must-read stories and debate in health policy and leadership.
Ten trusts have just 1 per cent or fewer of their outpatients on “patient initiated follow-up” pathways, against a target of 5 per cent, official data suggests.
The figures for acute trusts, obtained by HSJ, also suggest a leading group of providers is achieving 10 per cent or more.
This is the first time individual trusts’ performance has been made public following a Nuffield Trust study revealing the national average in January was 3 per cent.
The news comes with NHS England due to unveil a new outpatient strategy imminently, of which increasing the use of PIFU models is expected to be a cornerstone.
NHSE elective boss Sir Jim Mackey has previously said he wants PIFU rolled out on an “industrial scale”, but the evidence so far suggests the PIFU advances are more of a steady evolution than a dramatic revolution. And that may well be a more sensible pace.
See here for more on areas with the highest and lowest PIFU utilisation rates.
New hospitals, new estimates
The government agreed last year to fund the 40 “new hospitals” programme with around £22bn until the end of the decade.
However, concerns continued to swirl around the ambitious scheme after this.
Schemes were worried their allocations would not be enough, while high-profile reports raised concerns hospitals based on design assumptions may end up too small.
It may come as no surprise that the New Hospital Programme is hoping to increase its funding for its pledge.
The Department of Health and Social Care is understood to have already backed the plan.
This all centres on a change in heart over bed numbers, with a previous plan suggesting they could be reduced by 14 per cent.
The new business case, however, is understood to maintain existing bed levels, which would drive up the cost.
It is thought NHS England believed it was too early to assume reduced demand for inpatient beds.
Also on hsj.co.uk today
In London Eye, Ben Clover says that what the Tavistock and Portman Foundation Trust is going through as it tries to find a merger partner shows how low its stock has dropped. And in Comment, Steve Iliffe says that hospital at home services offer alternatives to traditional inpatient care in the NHS, showing potential benefits but requiring careful implementation strategies.
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