Press information issued on behalf of:
Amnis Ltd., 3000 Hillswood Drive, Hillswood Business Park, CHERTSEY,
Surrey, KT16 0RS
Web: www.amnis.uk.com
10th September 2009
Amnis advocates a strategic approach to ensuring NHS efficiency
According to the specialist healthcare quality, innovation and
productivity improvement enabler, Amnis, there needs to be a
fundamental shift in the way healthcare organisations work, both
internally and across health economies - if the opportunities
identified recently for improvements in the efficiency of healthcare
are to be realised.
Amnis' comments come in the wake of a report by management consultants,
McKinsey and Company, which was rejected by the Government but which
advocated cutting the NHS workforce in England by ten per cent over the
next five years in the cause of improving cost efficiency within the
healthcare sector.
The plans to close 137,000 NHS clinical and administrative posts were
said to save £20bn by 2014. The consultants also advocated a
recruitment freeze and early retirement programme.
Mark Eaton, managing director of Amnis, commented: "Achieving high
impact efficiency improvements in the NHS within a reasonable timescale
will need a massive increase in the pace of change and the creation of
a different mindset amongst senior leaders if they really want to
'change the game'.
"Many organisations which have already embarked on these changes are
discovering that the most cost effective way of achieving this is to
develop the organisation's internal capability to lead its own change
programmes rather than rely heavily on external management consultants.
"For many healthcare organisations this will mean building up a core of
skilled Lean practitioners," he continued.
"However, the application of Lean principles and systems to solve
tactical issues will not drive the long-term change that is required.
Lean is part of the armoury for change but strategy must drive the
engine.
"The key to success is to take a strategic approach to improvement that
combines implementation and planning with a focus on engaging teams and
dealing with facts rather than assumptions," Eaton stated. "It is this
strategic approach to transformation that will drive the programme of
change."
In his view, trying to do the same things better or working harder will
only realise a very small improvement in the way services operate.
Believing that services cannot be improved further or accepting that
current performance is adequate will limit the small gains achieved
even further, he added.
"There are two useful sayings that apply here," Eaton said. "One is,
'if you always do what you have always done you will always get what
you have always had' and the second is, 'change nothing and nothing
changes.'
"I believe that there are difficult and complex decisions to be made if
the full scale of the potential benefits are to be realised but every
project and programme that we, at Amnis, have led has shown that it is
possible to achieve – provided that the senior leaders have the focus
and courage to tackle the big issues; the front-line teams are engaged
and have the capability to change the game and, most of all, that the
whole organisation has the resilience to turn plans for improvement
into real life changes," he concluded.
For more information, visit Amnis at
www.amnis.uk.com,
email info@amnis.uk.com or call
0870 446 1002.
End
About Amnis Limited
Working with both public and private sector organisations, Amnis is a
consultancy which specialises in quality, innovation and productivity
improvement, helping clients plan and deploy strategies for successful
transformation. Its goal is to help clients not only deliver
sustainable change but also to develop their capability to tackle their
next challenges.
Providing both consultancy and training services, Amnis' team includes
specialists in Lean/Six Sigma, organisational development, strategic
planning, change management and systems thinking.
Further information from:
Mark Eaton, Amnis, 00 44 (0) 870 446 1002;
markeaton@amnis.uk.com
Bob
Little, Bob Little Press & PR, 00 44 (0)1727 860405;
bob.little@boblittlepr.com
