Right Care is a new initiative and forms one of 13 national workstreams in the DH Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention (QIPP) programme, which dominates NHS thinking at the present time. This workstream, however, is arguably not as front of mind as it needs to be with the pharma industry. Unlike many other QIPP workstreams, which are typically more focused on improving transactions in the NHS, the Right Care agenda focuses specifically on transformation to improve value in the NHS by doing the right things . ‘Well,’ you may ask, ‘why does this need to be ‘front of mind’ for the pharma industry?”
Essentially, Right Care is an enabling programme. It seeks to address variation, and in particular, unwarranted variation in the NHS, through the design and promotion of health investment and analysis tools such as the NHS Atlas of Variation. These tools are intended to help the NHS to understand regional variation in health spend and outcomes through local pilots and by promoting knowledge transfer.
For example, the workstream’s focus on programme budgeting and its related discipline of marginal analysis offers a way to help commissioners reflect on their priorities and maximise value from spend by improving the allocation of resources.
So the big question is…are the activities of the Right Care agenda relevant to pharma companies? Do we actually need to know all about this workstream’s plans and initiatives – and to research their implications – and will being a bit more clued up help to engage more effectively with the NHS?
Here is a little food for thought…..
Have you considered how you may need to adapt your brand strategies given the initiatives around the principle of ‘shared decision-making’ and the planned roll-out of tools for use by Clinical Commissioning Groups? For example, what are the implications of the introduction of Online Patient Decision Aids for communication between patients and healthcare professionals? What do you need to investigate about the potential usage in clinical practice of these tools in order to ensure that your brand can effectively leverage future opportunities?
On another note, how are PCTs in England using the NHS Atlas to identify and act upon unwarranted regional variations in the quality of care? Could your organisation do more to support actions which need to be taken at local level as a result of commissioners identifying an issue? If so, what type of support would be of most value?
Likewise, how might your company most effectively leverage the principle of “Do Once and Share”?
And what about the possibility that Right Care’s plans may lead to the creation of Clinical Leads for a Population within single care systems – perhaps there will be implications for your company’s future targeting activities?
These are just a few examples of why we believe that YES, Right Care should be front of mind for pharma business intelligence professionals, and why moving forward it needs to be a key focus for market research. What insights do you need to be able to effectively support the workstream’s initiative, and thus in turn be able to more effectively engage with the NHS?
For more information on the Right Care QIPP Workstream, click on www.rightcare.nhs.uk
