Improving productivity and efficiency

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Improving productivity and efficiency is central to NHS development. A key part of the Darzi report is the need to drive productivity in health services and do more with the resources we already have.

We are dedicated to helping healthcare organisations improve productivity and efficiency, saving time and money while enhancing patient and staff experiences. Using automated chatbots, robotic process automation and human call agents, we helped four NHS trusts reach over 80% of their waiting lists. Across 43 specialties, 9-14% of patients were removed from waiting lists, freeing valuable clinician time. Listen to the podcast.

As an NHS organisation, we provide trusted, independent advice and support to drive meaningful improvements, and we share your values and principles. Our solutions are accessible through multiple NHS procurement frameworks.

See also: People solutions, Digitally enabled transformation and IT, Analytics and decision support.

Our productivity services

Your system’s needs are unique, and our blend of support can be completely tailored to boost productivity and efficiency across your organisation. Here’s how we help solve some of today’s key productivity challenges facing the NHS as identified by the Darzi report.

  • Re-engaging staff and empowering patients

    Patient engagement: With NHS Activate, our automated patient engagement platform, you can streamline communication with tools like chatbot calls and personalised health videos. These solutions drive efficiency and save costs. In the Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Decathlon, 49% of patients engaged with appointments, achieving a 75% completion rate and surpassing weight-loss goals for 76% of participants.

    Training and development: We help you build a motivated, high-performing workforce. Our tailored training and workforce planning solutions ensure your staff feel valued and capable of delivering highly efficient care. At one NHS trust, we developed a flexible working framework which led to better recruitment and retention, higher staff survey scores and increased wellbeing and morale, positively impacting patient care and productivity.

  • Shifting care closer to home

    Integrated care pathways: Bring care closer to your patients with our digital solutions for integrated care pathways, including remote monitoring and virtual wards. Our low-cost blood pressure reporting solution, which integrates with GP decision support systems, was a pioneering efficiency boost. It increased patient engagement by 300% —a digital enablement blueprint recognised at the Innovate Awards.

    Personalised healthcare commissioning: As the nation’s largest provider of All Age Continuing Care, we streamline placement processes to improve efficiency for integrated care boards (ICBs) and social care providers, putting the patient at the heart of everything we do. Our technology-enabled approach cut placement times in half during the pandemic, even as caseloads doubled, and still offering two different care provider options on average per patient. Listen to the podcast.

  • Innovative care delivery

    Service redesign: We work closely with patients and clinicians to transform care delivery, maximising productivity and quality of care. For Northern Care Alliance, our endoscopy strategy defined clear, actionable goals, the strategic drivers needed to meet them and specific deliverables for how to improve outcomes and drive efficient service growth.

    Digital health solutions: Our digital transformation experts can help you identify, develop and implement technology that streamlines care processes, saves clinician and admin time and improves access for patients. Our Referral Hub for the NHS Digital Weight Management Programme has processed 420k patient referrals, making referrals faster and more efficient. Our personalised patient videos supporting GPs with the implementation of the National Diabetes Prevention Programme increased referral uptake by 45% and improved engagement by 11%.

  • Driving your hospital productivity

    Urgent care operational efficiency: We specialise in optimising urgent care operations to boost your productivity and patient flow, providing independent, clinical and analytical advice. At five trusts, our solutions eliminated ambulance delays, reduced handover times, and ensured timely crew shift completions—all through data-driven strategies and on-site support. Listen to the podcast.

    Insight, analytics and modelling: We use advanced analytics, statistical modelling and demand forecasting to help your investment decisions that will maximise productivity and efficiency. Our Strategy Unit’s 'big data' model for the New Hospital Programme supports 26 hospital schemes in forecasting demand and efficiently managing capacity needs, shifting activities out of hospital when needed.

    Programme optimisation: Get your programmes on track and achieve rapid improvement with our optimisation services, using data and analysis to benchmark performance against key system metrics. For the Liverpool, Sefton, and Knowsley Breast Screening Programme, our support established clear governance arrangements and reduced 60% of costs for two mobile screening sites, boosting productivity and programme effectiveness.

  • Embracing technology to drive efficiency

    AI and data analytics: From patient waiting list management to data protection, we are highly skilled in leveraging AI and data analytics to develop practical and efficient solutions to improve your decision making and patient outcomes. Our OTiS Tactical tool monitors urgent care flow and identifies bottlenecks. In Lancashire and Cheshire, our technology simplified COVID-19 reporting and helped quickly adjust hospital flow for efficient care delivery.

    IT management and digital services: We streamline back-office functions with solutions that reduce admin time and costs. We saved up to 50 hours per month in financial reporting and invoicing for clients after we introduced robotic process automation to transactional finance processes. Our

     solution saved NHS organisations over £1m and freed up 10+ hours monthly by providing clinicians with a single, comprehensive view of patient health history. Our AVA chatbot resolves many queries to our IT Service Desk without human input, saving over 100 hours per month, while expert resources can be efficiently deployed to deal with complex queries.

  • Supporting national prosperity

    Financial services and consultancy: We can help your productivity and economic contribution to make sure you get the most for your NHS spend. We specialise in finance support, cost improvement programmes, income recovery and transforming processes. We recovered £170k income for the George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust for mobile phone masts, and our work with Birmingham and Solihull ICB led to a saving on agency spending of £5.5m, paying for 2,447 fewer agency shifts per month on average. 

    Workforce transformation, planning and redesign: Our workforce planning methodology uses engagement, analytics and research to help you tailor your workforce for efficient care delivery that meets the increasing demands of the nation. Our establishment control system, ECSyS, aligns HR, finance, and operations providing a comprehensive view of all workforce contractual changes to help you manage your workforce more efficiently. With Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, we addressed workforce gaps, resulting in a more sustainable and agile medical workforce to meet the care delivery needs of the growing trust and its population.

  • Reforming structure for delivery

    Strategic support: We are experts in organisational reform and performance improvement with a focus on optimising for efficiency. Our comprehensive consulting services span clinical service redesign, shared service solutions, implementing new governance models, place development, quality improvement programmes, establishing and strengthening provider collaboratives, supporting mergers and formation of new organisations and other. For example, we engaged with cancer alliances to develop a self-assessment framework which enabled NHS England to provide targeted support, helping alliances deliver productive and effective care.

    Business support: Our comprehensive business support services bring down costs via economies of scale providing both expertise and resilience at a fraction of the cost of recruiting or training in-house teams. We can improve efficiency across HR, finance, project management, business cases, information governance, procurement, communications and engagement, business continuity and more. For the CQRS Local system, our project management proved to be a critical asset in improving efficiency, reducing administrative burdens and transforming governance. 

Our key strengths

A trusted independent partner who understands the inner workings and regulatory requirements of complex health systems.

Unique ‘helicopter’ view to help convene and reinforce vital system partners.

Huge scale – nine ICSs supported by over 2,000 experts across NHS Midlands and Lancashire, plus further capacity, learning and innovation available through access to the other three commissioning support units in England.

Over 50,000 IT end users supported.

At-scale and place-based delivery providing national reach and local focus.

Experience that is recognised by industry leaders.

Get in touch

For more information and to find out how we can help you, please get in touch.

We have specialist skills and experience in..

  • Integrated working approaches which can solve the complexity, duplication and variability that detract from the bigger picture
  • Support with greater accountabilities, planning and governance challenges, increased reporting requirements and the need to achieve economies of scale
  • Leadership and insight to inform and inject expertise in cost improvement programmes
  • Automation and digital innovation to drive efficiency and increase productivity
  • Transformation of business-critical services to unlock further efficiencies
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How we can help health systems

Clinical redesign and provider collaboration

Redesigning how health and care works across England - placing people at the centre of their own health and care and utilising…

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Clinical redesign and provider collaboration

Communications and engagement

Supporting ICSs with approaches to design and deliver effective communication, engagement and behavioural insights as a key enabler for system change and…

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Communications and engagement

Developing health systems

Acting as an independent and trusted partner within the system to facilitate working across stakeholders and integrate elements of the provider system…

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Developing health systems

Digitally enabled transformation and IT

Digitising care and partnering with systems for the transformation of digitally enabled service delivery (and other supporting processes) across vision, planning and…

Learn more about Digitally enabled transformation and IT
Digitally enabled transformation and IT

Improving productivity and efficiency

We have a range of impactful solutions both across operational services and transformational programmes to support NHS systems to tackle some of…

Learn more about Improving productivity and efficiency
Improving productivity and efficiency

People solutions

Supporting systems to build a sustainable and integrated workforce, transforming systems, organisations and the workforce experience to improve resilience.

Learn more about People solutions
People solutions

Personalised healthcare commissioning services

Providing end-to-end funded care services, including patients as active partners in identifying their healthcare needs and then commissioning care to meet these.…

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Personalised healthcare commissioning services

PHM analytics and decision support

Applying intelligence-led understanding of the health of the population to support the redesign of care and improve patient and financial outcomes across…

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PHM analytics and decision support

Place and primary care transformation

Supporting providers to work together at a place and neighbourhood level to manage common resources, integrate community teams, improve health and reduce…

Learn more about Place and primary care transformation
Place and primary care transformation