NAC Group leads NHS efficiency drive
April 29, 2010 14:08
Absence costs money. And absence is what the NHS has a lot of. Recent research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development suggests that the typical employee in the NHS takes off 11 days from work each year due to sickness.
This compares with an average figure for public sector employees of 9.7 days per year, and only 6.7 days per year for private sector employees. Of course, there may be valid reasons why NHS staff are more prone to sickness, but there is no doubt that this level of absenteeism places a tremendous cost burden on the service. Some experts suggest that sickness absence currently costs the NHS in the order of £3 billion per year.
The Department of Health intends making annual savings of £555 million by reducing the level of absence due to sickness. There can be no doubt that pressure will grow on the NHS over the coming months to make savings without damaging front-line services. Tackling absenteeism is one way of doing this.
A reduction in absenteeism on the scale that is planned requires a detailed look at the way in which people are managed and how they perform their tasks.
This is what a business improvement team from the 'Hotel Services' (housekeeping) department at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, have been trying to achieve.
Suzanne Fisher, Hotel Services manager, assembled a team of volunteers from various disciplines within the service area to carry through a pilot business improvement. The drive for improvement was led by senior managers of the Trust, supported by lean consultants from the NAC Group plc.
The exercise commenced with a strategic analysis of the value stream in the housekeeping services area. Using the Business Improvement Techniques NVQ programme as a basis, the team set about reviewing the current sickness absence procedures. The team’s analysis led them to develop and introduce improvements to the existing policy, particularly focusing on the reporting of absence, subsequent resource allocation and return to work procedures.
The pilot initiative resulted in three immediate improvements:
- A sustainable decrease in sickness absence, and therefore in cost to the Trust
- Standardised and improved sickness reporting across the Hotel Services department
- Improved staff awareness of their role in supporting the Trust's values and delivering its objectives
Following the successful pilot scheme, it was decided to roll the approach out across all aspects of Hotel Services. Projected savings to the department as a whole amount to £54,000 on sickness absence costs just over the next six months.
"If this level of saving could be achieved across the NHS, it would start to add up and make a real difference", says Paul Robson, MD of the NAC Group, "our lean consultants are skilled at helping organisations to root out waste and cut costs."