focus on health
We investigate how a commercially-conscious NHS relies on specialist vendors to help maximise revenues
Can advances in medical technology
improve the efficiency of the NHS?
It is probably two decades since railway passengers became customers. While
attracting much criticism at the time, the change reflected better the commercial
relationship between a traveller and the railway company. While it may be
impossible in most instances to use an alternative train operator’s services, the
principle was established that the rail companies deal with people who can
exercise their economic discretion and should therefore be treated accordingly.
The culture of customer empowerment has It does not follow, however, that patients will
extended far beyond the transport networks enjoy the same customer ‘experience’ wher-
into what have been less commercially-driven ever they go for investigation and treatment.
areas of the economy. Progress may have some In practice, there are factors other than wait-
way to go in that direction, however. The NHS, ing time which determine how patients will
for example, still refers to the people who take view a particular establishment. How they ‘in-
up its services as patients rather than custom- terface’ with the procedures they undergo
ers, but NHS Hospital Trusts have come to view while there is one of them.
them increasingly as customers in that they That is certainly true in the area of medical
directly or indirectly have a choice over the imaging, which is the diagnostic stage for a
‘business unit’ that will provide the service. broad spectrum of medical conditions and
For the healthcare provider keen to balance therefore one through which many patients
its books, each piece of business – a surgical will pass.
procedure or whole-body diagnostic scan, for While the concept of scanning patients by
example – is valuable in terms of the funds passing them through an imaging gantry is
that it generates. more than 40 years old, the engineering which
Every qualifying activity undertaken will makes the technique practicable in a hospital
earn the hospital a payment on an agreed tar- has improved out of all recognition.
iff from the patient’s Primary Care Trust, Because the data capture processes have
through which NHS funds are channelled. been speeded up over the years, the time taken
Earn a reputation for poor ‘customer care’ to scan a patient’s entire body can be reduced.
amongst GPs who refer patients, however, and The time spent in the scanner’s ‘tunnel’ re-
an NHS Hospital Trust will find that its poten- duces and, with it, the opportunity for patients
tial customers are being sent to other estab- to feel unduly anxious or claustrophobic. Pa-
lishments eager to claim that revenue stream. tient experience improves, along with the
The medical care provided in different parts ‘message’ filtering back to GP surgeries.
of the NHS is fortunately consistent: whatever Peter Harrison, Director of Sales and Solu-
else its failings might be, the NHS in England tions at Siemens Healthcare. is well placed
has set uniformly high standards for clinical to consider the issues involved, and the im-
attainment across its network of some 400 NHS pact that such technology can have on the
Trusts. economics of running a Trust.
While patients can expect a consistently high standard of medical care across the NHS, it is unlikely
that they will enjoy the same customer ‘experience’ wherever they go for investigation and treatment.
The Informed Executive
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