Health and Social Care
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At Frazer-Nash we have a range of engineering and technical skill sets that support the health and social care sector moving towards a more efficient and effective system. Our skills in whole systems thinking can be used to understand and identify opportunities to tackle the challenges around demand, funding, technology, and resourcing to establish a viable system.
Health Challenges: Exponential growth in demand within a constrained system
The demand for health and social care services has grown dramatically since the founding of the National Health Service.
As the range of diagnosable and treatable conditions has grown, more people are able to live longer and healthier lives. Coupled with increasing wealth, better health and safety, improved education, and nutrition, it is anticipated that people will live well into older age. This has implications for the health services as, beyond the age of 50, the likelihood of requiring medical interventions starts to increase significantly. As well as an ageing population, there are other key factors driving increased cost within the health and social care sector including:
- People are living longer with multiple comorbidities and long-term conditions requiring ongoing input from the health sector.
- There is an increasing issue of antibiotic resistance, patients are developing healthcare acquired infections resulting in longer inpatient stays.
- Different trusts use different IT systems, resulting in inefficiencies when completing routine tasks, particularly for rotation of staff.
- Covid-19 had a huge impact on the health and social care sector in many ways. One of the key lasting impacts is the long wait lists.
- The de-institutionalisation of care, awareness and treatment of mental health conditions has grown significantly as well as the expectation of these services.
- Widening health inequalities affected by access to digital services, location, and depravity.
These pressures are increasing within a constrained budget. Even ignoring funding limitations, and the growing demand there are still constraints on the number of people available to work in the health and social care services. On top of the increasing demands on the health system, other key factors that contribute to the strain on resources include:
- The UK health and social care system is vulnerable to staff emigrating to other countries for a better quality of life.
- Working conditions within the health and social care system can be challenging and leading to high absenteeism, turnover and even staff exiting the industry.
- NHS England estate has around 1,500 hospitals. The hospital estate contains many old buildings, and its condition has been deteriorating.
The health and social care system, therefore, needs to be aware of these constraints to take action to minimise the growth in demand and maximise the productive use of resources to deliver effective treatment and care.
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How does health and social care respond to this surge in demand within the available budget?
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Key Questions
- How do you build a fit for purpose and more resilient health and social care system within the current constraints to resolve the complications as quickly as possible?
- How could you manage demand differently?
- And how could you improve the capability and productivity of the whole system?
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Solutions
The health and social care system, therefore, needs to be aware of these constraints to take action to minimise the growth in demand and maximise the productive use of resources to deliver effective treatment and care.
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Frazer-Nash Expertise
- Systems engineering (including open architecture).
- Data science, artificial intelligence, and modelling (e.g. EMPATH)
- Economic analysis and business case development
- Circular economy and sustainability link to
- System safety including secure by design and cyber security for safety.
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