Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 4
4
Accepted
NHS England’s elective recovery programme partly relies on initiatives which have potential but for which...
Recommendation
NHS England’s elective recovery programme partly relies on initiatives which have potential but for which there is so far limited evidence of effectiveness. NHSE has expanded some programmes because it believes them to be sufficiently promising, but there is currently a limited evidence base for their effectiveness, their impact on other parts of the health and social care system, and how they will work on a greatly expanded scale. NHSE told us it would ensure that capacity in surgical hubs, community diagnostic centres and the independent sector would be genuinely additional. However, it has more work to do to demonstrate how additional capacity will be sufficiently staffed without detracting from other NHS services. It is also concerning that NHSE could not provide the National Audit Office with its full evaluation of the 2021 elective accelerators programme, on which it spent £160 million. Recommendation: NHS England should know more about the conditions necessary for individual programmes to make the greatest contribution possible to recovery. Alongside its Treasury Minute response to this report, it should write to us more fully describing the real-world impact of community diagnostic centres, surgical hubs, increased use of the independent sector, and the advice and guidance programme. It should set out its understanding of the extent to which these initiatives have so far generated genuinely additional activity, rather than simply displacing activity elsewhere in the NHS.
Government Response Summary
The government agrees to describe the real-world impact of community diagnostic centres, surgical hubs, increased use of the independent sector, and the advice and guidance programme and write to the committee before the summer recess to give further details.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented The actions in the NHS published Delivery Plan are targeted at increasing activity, managing demand or increasing productivity and NHS England carefully monitors progress against delivery targets at regular intervals. The 2023-24 priorities and operational planning guidance published on 23 December 2022 detailed three tasks over the coming year; recover core services and productivity; as the NHS recovers, make progress in delivering the key ambitions in the Long Term Plan, and; continue transforming the NHS for the future. To assist in meeting these objectives, NHS England has set out the most critical, evidence-based actions that will support delivery - based on what systems and providers have already demonstrated makes the most difference to patient outcomes, experience, access, and safety. The NHS is delivering at pace, 100 community diagnostic centres are currently in operation and have performed over 3.5 million tests, exams, and scans since July 2021 despite challenging and uncertain delivery conditions. NHS England will write to the Committee before summer recess to set out further detail of the impact of community diagnostic centres, surgical hubs, use of the independent sector, and the advice and guidance programme.