COMMENT
The NHS Sustainable Development Unit is trying to reform the health service from the inside, financially, socially and environmentally. Its director,Dr David Pencheon, explains how.
its broadest context its implications can be breathtaking.
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Although it is still seen by many as a short- hand way of saying ‘environmentally- friendly’, the word has a much broader sense – which is how the NHS Sustainability Unit uses it. It aims to truly revolutionise the way the health service functions and interacts with the public, albeit on a long timeframe.
The unit’s director, Dr David Pencheon, discussed sustainability, his organisa- tion and the future shape of the NHS with National Health Executive.
18 | national health executive Mar/Apr 11
ustainability is a buzz-word, there is no getting away from that, but seen in
He began by saying: “Within the NHS, and more broadly in the public sector and in business, it’s becoming apparent that sus- tainability is the merging of financial sus- tainability, social sustainability and envi- ronmental sustainability.
“It’s about meeting all sorts of challenges in a very rapidly-changing world, while main- taining the quality of patient care, the pa- tient experience and patient outcomes. We must do that in a way that doesn’t prejudice our ability to do it in the future, financially or socially or environmentally.”
The unit is not a police force going around investigating poor sustainability policies, but instead a ‘shaper of policy’, he ex-
plained: “That means shaping policy with the Department of Health, but also with the regulatory structures within the NHS. Those regulatory structures are themselves undergoing quite a lot of transition cur- rently.
“That would include Monitor and the Care Quality Commission as well as through the self-regulation of NHS organisations.
“Most NHS organisations have their own ‘governance framework’ – most of the things they do, they do because they decide themselves; they are not totally dominated by rules from above. That, looking at the current NHS reforms, is going to be even more the case in the future.
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