Strategy Unit devises a new method for classifying outpatient appointments
Report
15th October 2021

The number of outpatient attendances in England is now approaching 100 million each year. In 2017/18, the estimated cost of this care was over £9 billion - or 8% of the total NHS England budget.

Yet there are significant gaps in our knowledge. We don’t know enough about the purpose and function of outpatient appointments. Without this knowledge, the NHS will struggle to ensure that the billions spent on these services are delivering best value for the patient and the public.

Infant feeding problems, lockdown and attendance at Emergency Departments: what’s going on?
Blog post
15th September 2021

From our previous work, with Nuffield Trust and Health Foundation, we know that lockdown had a significant effect on attendance at Emergency Departments (ED). We also know that this effect was very unevenly distributed: some demographic groups stayed away far more than others.

Part of the solution or part of the problem? Management Consultants and the NHS
Blog post
13th August 2018

I was quoted in a recent Guardian newspaper article which described a London Clinical Commissioning Group’s wasteful use of external management consultants. That in turn came after I spoke at the CASS Business School seminar on the same topic on 9th May this year. In this blog, I set out why I believe the NHS is enticed by management consultancies and I offer an alternative option of ‘internal consultancy’ as practised by the Strategy Unit.

Can a new model of integrated care improve resilience?
Not set
26th August 2017

The Strategy Unit has recently completed a £116,000 research project that will inform the development of new care models central to the NHS Five Year Forward View.  The project, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), aims to combine existing reported knowledge in an “evidence synthesis” of integrated models of care.  The team worked in partnership with the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR), University of Sheffield, which has an international reputation in evidence synthesis and health services research.