Recommendation 14

NHSE told us that it had got very close to achieving large changes to outpatients services, but a long period of industrial action had disrupted appointments and that a new plan and better clinical engagement was required.26 NHSE told us that there should have been more of a focus on outpatients and that the programme was under-resourced.27 Other organisational factors also hindered NHSE’s oversight and control of the programme, as in its early stages, outpatients transformation was managed by a different part of NHSE from the other transformation programmes.28 NHSE also accepted that more work needs to be done on outpatients transformation.29