Helping the NHS to change: Monitor’s annual plan for 2014/15
20 Jun 2014 04:22 PM
Monitor's annual
plan encourages NHS providers to develop new ways of working and to take
controlled risks in order to improve patient
care.
The way Monitor regulates NHS
foundation trusts will be reviewed with the aim of ensuring those organisations
which provide healthcare are given room to innovate and take calculated risks,
in order to provide better quality services for patients and better value for
money.
Meeting the needs of
patients
The move is just one of several
actions announced by Monitor in its annual plan, aimed at encouraging the NHS
to develop services that better meet the needs of patients whilst doing more
with the money it is given.
Over the coming year Monitor
will examine the opportunities of integrating and localising healthcare,
identify possible new models of care and learn lessons from models used in
other countries. Using this research Monitor will support healthcare providers
to plan and develop new ways of delivering services which revolve around the
specific needs of their local patients.
Dr David Bennett, Chief
Executive of Monitor said:
We’re planning for a lot
of changes this year at Monitor; not just in our own work but in the way we
support NHS foundation trusts to develop better care for
patients.
We recognise that in order to
promote innovation we have to let healthcare providers take measured risks, and
will be working to take a balanced approach when there are ideas for change.
The need for change in the NHS is well known, but it shouldn’t be seen as
a threat; it is an opportunity for radical and lasting
improvement.
This year we will work with
partners to build on existing research and explore new ideas for how healthcare
could deliver quality services for patients. We’ll use that research to
support providers and commissioners to improve and adapt to patients’
changing needs.
Other planned actions for
2014/15 include:
- researching how patient choice
and competition can affect the healthcare market to find out how it can better
serve the interest of patients and help develop new patterns of community-based
care
- designing a new payment system
so that payments to providers are based on evidence of good patient care, and
research and share actions that providers can take to cut costs and use savings
to improve treatments for patients
- researching local health
economies, including the use of smaller acute providers and possible new
community healthcare models, to inform our approach and support provider
organisations in exploring new ways of working
- working with the Care Quality
Commission (CQC) to make sure Monitor has the same approach to measuring
leadership and care, to align with their new inspection
handbook
- developing and publishing a new
framework for how Monitor will regulate independent providers of
healthcare
- reviewing and developing
Monitor’s approach to approving and regulating foundation trusts,
including the risk assessment framework, the content of provider licences, and
the way Monitor intervenes when things go wrong
Monitor’s long-term
strategy
In April this year, Monitor
published its corporate strategy for
2014 to 2017, which detailed its new approach to making sure the healthcare
sector works for patients.
The annual
plan reflects that objective and details how this year’s
activities will achieve better healthcare outcomes