Improving productivity
Skills for Health has been developing a range of initiatives around workforce development to support the reduction in waiting times for healthcare services. In England, we are working with the Department of Health to look at how the health workforce can be redesigned to meet the 18 week target. It is hoped that the learning from this work might be adapted to support similar policy objectives in other UK countries.
The work has focused on 36 commissioning pathways, initially mapping the Skills for Health competences to the functions performed in primary care, specialist care and sub specialist care in a range of clinical areas, and the impact on roles if functions change. Subsequently the education and training required to support these changes will also be considered. The work also considers diagnostic elements and explores different ways of offering diagnostic testing to support reductions in waiting times.
By focusing on what the workforce needs to do, and what skills they need to deliver additional services, this work should make a real contribution to helping care providers achieve DH targets. An evaluation report is due in October, and we’ll feature further details in the next edition of Skills for Health News.
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