Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 19
19
Surgical hub governance structures less developed, with metrics misaligned to actual activity outcomes.
Conclusion
The NAO report found that the diagnostic programme has the most established governance structure and there was evidence of in-depth reporting, while governance was less developed for surgical transformation hubs.40 The Department told us that whilst it had previously had two teams and two boards providing separate governance arrangements, it had now moved to a single oversight arrangement.41 The Department told us that NHSE was doing enough to track the impact of programmes in order to balance reporting and bureaucratic load.42 However, the NAO report outlined that for surgical hubs the programme measurements were misaligned with the intended outcomes as whilst it was tracking the number of delivered surgical hubs, the actual aim of the programme was to increase overall activity. The report found that NHSE does not know what contribution surgical hubs had actually made to total elective activity.43 39 Correspondence from NHS England, dated 6 November. 40 C&AG’s Report, para 3.2 41 Q 54 42 Q 69 43 C&AG’s Report, para 2.18 12 2 Achieving future elective care transformation The feasibility of current transformation plans