Waiting time targets – like happiness – are best pursued indirectly
It sounds sensible to book patients in before they breach the target. But in practice it is unfair, unsafe, and keeps waiting times on the brink of failure. There is a better way.
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Planning a hospital for constant capacity – a worked example
In principle, we can plan the hospital to smooth out expensive peaks and troughs in capacity. In practice we need to apply some common sense too.
English waiting list grew by over 12 per cent year-on-year
Officially, England only just missed the 18 week target. Unofficially things were much worse because of non-reporting Trusts. What is most worrying is that the waiting list has grown by over 12 per cent year on year.
If the NHS had cruise control – the importance of constant capacity
Keeping waiting times close to the brink is a false economy. Make headroom once, and you can run the hospital more cheaply forever.
Adaptable – how NHS planning is rediscovering its purpose
The old, centralised, annualised approach to planning and performance management is fading. In its place is emerging something much more adaptable, much more granular, and much more useful.
How to use the new constant capacity settings
Capacity in the NHS can be a bit of a bumpy ride, with expensive escalation beds and extra sessions. Gooroo Planner can help you smooth things out, with new constant capacity modelling.
Upgrade: constant capacity
The latest (free) upgrade to Gooroo Planner includes constant capacity modelling, zero profiling, overhauled dataset settings, and revised capacity calculations.
It’s official: England breaches the 18 week standard
England officially breached the 18 week target at national level in December 2015, after unofficially breaching it since October. The cause: long term rapid growth in the size of the waiting list.
An end to annual planning
No, annual planning is not dead yet. But it could become simply a by-product of genuine operational planning.
England still (probably) breaching 18 weeks
The 18 week target was narrowly breached again in November, if you adjust for non-reporting Trusts.