The NHS at a Crossroads: Harnessing Data to Transform Healthcare
The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) sits on what might be the country’s largest data repository outside the Ministry of Defense. We spoke with Gary Ferguson, Head of Sales at LOGEX UK, about the disconnect between data collection and utilisation in the NHS, and how breaking down barriers and changing practices could solve long-standing issues in delivery.
After 20 years of mandatory cost collection, why aren’t healthcare leaders getting more value from their data?
When costing was first introduced in the UK, it was really exciting. Hospitals could actually work out their exact costs – how much a hip replacement costs, whether they were making or losing money on procedures like dialysis etc. This new data got people asking good questions and making changes. But when it became mandated, the market stagnated. Everyone got their system, produced the reports required by the government and it became a box- ticking exercise.
What has that led to?
This kind of cultural inertia can get costly. In one example of work we did with a client, our analysis revealed that two hospitals in the same region of the UK had dramatically different unit costs for treating abdominal pain.
One hospital was admitting patients to general surgery wards for tests and observations, while the other treated them in the Accident & Emergency department (A&E). The cost differential was significant – but more importantly, it highlighted potential improvements in patient care. Think about it… with the exact same symptoms, which would you rather experience as a patient? Being admitted for four days, with the associated risks of hospital -acquired infections, or being treated and discharged efficiently through A&E?
By surfacing these cost and practice variations, LOGEX tools can enable strategic discussions about both financial efficiency and clinical outcomes, but it takes leaders to show interest and give time to doing that kind of digging for understanding and improvement.
What needs to change to unlock the full potential of healthcare data?
I think we’re seeing great things across the sector, we just need to be even braver in three key things. 1. Keep dropping the walls – we all know that greater transparency and collaboration between organisations benefits everyone. 2. Really sweating the data assets you’ve invested in – the sector is data rich but information poor. With targeted investments leaders can get enormous returns on better use of the data available to them. 3. Suspending previous assumptions about technology – embracing the transformative potential of tools like AI and Financial Modelling is what’s needed to move the NHS significantly forward against the challenges it’s facing.
The NHS is incredible, functioning as 200+ different companies all with the same logo. But that complexity shouldn’t necessarily equate to a slow pace of change. There isn’t one big thing that will make healthcare radically more efficient – it’s ultimately about making hundreds of small improvements, year after year across clinical processes, operational delivery and patient experience.
