Helping the NHS to change: Monitor’s annual plan for 2014/15
Monitor's annual plan encourages NHS providers to develop new ways of working and to take controlled risks in order to improve patient care.
The way Monitor regulates NHS foundation trusts will be reviewed with the aim of ensuring those organisations which provide healthcare are given room to innovate and take calculated risks, in order to provide better quality services for patients and better value for money.
Meeting the needs of patients
The move is just one of several actions announced by Monitor in its annual plan, aimed at encouraging the NHS to develop services that better meet the needs of patients whilst doing more with the money it is given.
Over the coming year Monitor will examine the opportunities of integrating and localising healthcare, identify possible new models of care and learn lessons from models used in other countries. Using this research Monitor will support healthcare providers to plan and develop new ways of delivering services which revolve around the specific needs of their local patients.
Dr David Bennett, Chief Executive of Monitor said:
We’re planning for a lot of changes this year at Monitor; not just in our own work but in the way we support NHS foundation trusts to develop better care for patients.
We recognise that in order to promote innovation we have to let healthcare providers take measured risks, and will be working to take a balanced approach when there are ideas for change. The need for change in the NHS is well known, but it shouldn’t be seen as a threat; it is an opportunity for radical and lasting improvement.
This year we will work with partners to build on existing research and explore new ideas for how healthcare could deliver quality services for patients. We’ll use that research to support providers and commissioners to improve and adapt to patients’ changing needs.
Other planned actions for 2014/15 include:
- researching how patient choice and competition can affect the healthcare market to find out how it can better serve the interest of patients and help develop new patterns of community-based care
- designing a new payment system so that payments to providers are based on evidence of good patient care, and research and share actions that providers can take to cut costs and use savings to improve treatments for patients
- researching local health economies, including the use of smaller acute providers and possible new community healthcare models, to inform our approach and support provider organisations in exploring new ways of working
- working with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to make sure Monitor has the same approach to measuring leadership and care, to align with their new inspection handbook
- developing and publishing a new framework for how Monitor will regulate independent providers of healthcare
- reviewing and developing Monitor’s approach to approving and regulating foundation trusts, including the risk assessment framework, the content of provider licences, and the way Monitor intervenes when things go wrong
Monitor’s long-term strategy
In April this year, Monitor published its corporate strategy for 2014 to 2017, which detailed its new approach to making sure the healthcare sector works for patients.
The annual plan reflects that objective and details how this year’s activities will achieve better healthcare outcomes.