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Neighbourhoods and hospital activity: oh yes it can, oh no it can’t?
Simple, intuitive ideas don’t draw critical attention. They stroll about the policy world, untested and unscathed.
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Improving perioperative flow: using simulation to understand elective care pathways
Why are operations still being cancelled on the day of surgery, despite long waiting lists and high demand? The answer often lies not in a single point of failure, but in how the perioperative pathway functions as a whole.
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Complex problems and Multi-Disciplinary Teams
Many moons ago, I was fortunate enough to observe a multi-disciplinary team (MDT) in Dudley.
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Why NHS models should be built to be reused
Our Head of Simulation, Dr Lucy Morgan, recently appeared on the new podcast Inside the Algorithm, hosted by Cambridg
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Neighbourhood health should not be judged (solely) by its ability to reduce hospital activity
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy arrived at NASA headquarters for a progress update on the planned trip to the moon.
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Diagnosing the problems of non-diagnosis
Some descriptions of healthcare seem to be taken straight from the film Minority Report.
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What explains the recent growth in hospital activity?
In this long read, Fraser Battye describes our analysis of what has driven the growth in hospital activity.
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The enduring ‘messy programme’ with ‘mixed results’
The diagram below shows me at my most cynical.
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Planning for rising renal demand: simulating capacity across the care system
Demand for kidney replacement therapy is rising, and current capacity will not be sufficient over the next decade. This work uses simulation modelling to help systems understand future pressures and test potential responses.
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Death (and taxes?)
Hospices are fundamental to end of life care, and the broader shift ‘from hospital to community’.
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Beating the backlog: Meeting the waiting list challenge
The NHS waiting list in England must halve to reach waiting time targets.
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The Strategy Unit contribution to neighbourhood health
Our role in supporting the national effort to turn the vision of neighbourhood health into action by providing evidence, analysis and insight.
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Making sense of failure demand in the NHS
I must be an unpleasant creature to share a room with. I snore. I smell. And I’m seemingly addicted to my way of doing things.
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Things can only get better (?)
Introducing a new online tool to help local health and care service planners think differently about healthy ageing.
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‘Internal Consultancy’: INSIGHTS from evidence and experience
In this blog, our Head of Policy, Fraser Battye, shares his reflections on a recent ‘SU INSIGHTS’ event on the ‘Internal Consultancy’
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Are ‘Internal Consultancies’ a good option for the NHS?
Ahead of a SU INSIGHTS event on the topic, Fraser Battye, our Head of Policy suggests ways the NHS could make better use of consultancy support.
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From ‘right drift’ to ‘left shift’?
Our Head of Policy, Fraser Battye, looks at the challenges facing the intention to shift care ‘from hospital to community’. He suggests that we have missed a critical part of the explanation for why this ‘left shift’ hasn’t taken place following previous initiatives.
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Ara Darzi, Wes Streeting and English health policy. Part 2: cutting the knot
Following on from part one, Fraser continues exploring the Gordian Knot of English health policy.
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Ara Darzi, Wes Streeting and English health policy. Part 1: the Gordian Knot
Health policy is not at a crossroads, it is in a bind. Strands so entangled, so complex they resemble a Gordian knot. Can this knot be untied?