The DH and NHS have published so many initiatives on innovation over the years that it’s easy to view today’s Nicholson report with a jaded eye. Certainly, the content on NICE uptake on its own looks depressingly familiar but, taken as a whole, there may be grounds for more optimism. In particular, there’s a coherence about the package which looks more promising though, in true NHS fashion, many of the bells and whistles, such as the gimmicky collaboration with Which?, could have been dropped to good effect.
Nevertheless, there is a core of solid proposals which have real potential, as ever subject to the all-important detail. There’s also an unusually tight timeline to put that flesh on the bones. In particular:
* The procurement strategy is due to be published in three months; a real opportunity for the NHS to show that whole life value will genuinely be weighted alongside price;
* Similarly, decommissioning will be given renewed impetus in short order, absolutely crucial to a credible plan to adopt more innovation;
* First up in the 3-9 month category, is the launch of the specialised services commissioning fund which has been so vigorously championed by JMC over the last few months. This has exciting potential to bring commissioners, clinicians, patients and industry together in getting new technologies into use, alongside the data collection needed assess their longer term potential;
* In the medium-term, the proposals on managerial and clinical curricula have much to commend them in addressing the cultural resistance to innovation in much of the NHS, while the proposed changes to tariff around diagnostics and assistive technologies will provide critical underpinning.
- December 5, 2011 posted by John Murray | Permalink
