Public Services Lab Blog

People-powered health

Laura Bunt - 04.11.2009

The NHS must be radically re-focused on doing more for less.

Given the pressure on public finances, the policy debate has focused on making savings in public services. The NHS - the world's largest public service - is not exempt from this. After decades of positive investment, the NHS is geared towards growth. Now it must be radically re-focused on doing more for less.

But amid the clamour of cuts, we mustn't forget what we know to be effective about good healthcare: it needs to be patient-centred, and it needs to be preventative. This has long been recognised, but is still far from universal. And as more and more people are living with long-term conditions, not only is transformation clinically valuable, it is economically urgent.

This morning, we launched a report at NESTA that looks to our (and others') practical experience of developing projects in healthcare and NESTA's work with innovative businesses for insights into how to achieve these outcomes. The Human Factor explores how 'user' and 'open' innovation that involves the public can deliver more patient-centred and preventative health services and can make significant savings.

Assuming essentially unchanged services - doing the same thing, only trying to do it more cheaply - won't meet the savings demands nor make the impact the NHS needs. Rather than a constraint, tighter budgets should be a spur for more radical change to meet the immediate demands of the financial crisis and the long-term challenges of the future.

We're grateful to Andrew Lansley, Shadow Secretary of State for Health, and Tim Kelsey, Chairman of Dr Foster Intelligence, for joining us to launch the report and sharing some insights. And thanks to the number of pioneers who showcased some of their work and provide the inspiration and practical platform from which to drive forward change.