Listen to the incoming NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens, who will replace Sir David Nicholson in April, talk about innovation and the future of healthcare in a speech in Qatar yesterday.
Among his comments at the World Innovation Summit for Health were that for health systems to thrive, they need to become “the exact opposite of healthcare as the world’s largest cottage industry - which is what we have got in most countries”.
Mr Stevens, currently UnitedHealth president of global health, and a former advisor in the Department of Health and 10 Downing Street, also said there was a large gap between doctors’ knowledge that health services’ quality varies, and the public who often believe it does not.
He said: “We are going to draw back the veil between what those of us working inside health know about it and what the people on the receiving end of our ministrations get to see - particularly about care quality.”
He also spoke about “undersupply of needed care and oversupply of inappropriate care”. Attendees included Sir David, NHS England chair Sir Malcolm Grant, and London mayor Boris Johnson.
2 Readers' comments