Simon Stevens' NHS Confederation conference speech: five key points

http://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2015/jun/03/simon-stevens-nhs-confederation-conference

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Redesigning NHS emergency care, tackling poor performance and harnessing the health service’s purchasing power are among the priorities of the NHS England chief executive.

Simon Stevens, delivering the keynote speech on the opening day of this year’s NHS Confederation conference in Liverpool, set out his plans for how the NHS can deliver the Five Year Forward View.

The forward view, published last year, outlines a vision for the health service. It had power, Stevens said, because it was based not on his personal plan but on the collective view of organisations across the sector.

He told the audience of more than 3,000 health sector leaders: “We, the national health service, have set out our stall before the British people and come together to charter our own destiny.”

He added: “We have a plan. The NHS is up for it. We’ve got 54 million people in this country on our side.”

I see no likelihood that the NHS will receive additional infusions of cash this year

Among the measures announced in his speech were:

‘Success regime’

Stevens announced unprecedented new measures to tackle poor performance in three areas – north Cumbria, Essex and north-west Devon. The “success regime” will see regulators work with NHS England in the three regions to tackle problems and draw up “a more holistic diagnosis as to what needs to change”.

Previous strategies for improving NHS performance, Stevens said, had been “tested to destruction”.

Urgent and emergency care redesign

Stevens called for redesign of “the urgent care spaghetti” and said the current system was confusing for patients, meaning too many went to A&E, despite other options being available.

“We have got to do a far better job of joining this up from the public’s point of view,” he said. “We’ve got to do a better job of supporting self-care.”

He invited NHS leaders to “come play with us” and get involved in helping the health service better manage the rising demand for emergency care.

Related: NHS cannot take more cuts to social care, say healthcare leaders

Harnessing NHS ‘purchasing power’

“I see no likelihood that the NHS will receive additional infusions of cash this year,” said Stevens, and managers will have to make do with what resources are allocated to them.

There was a need for “honest and balanced conversations about the level of demand and activity” the NHS faced, he added.

He said it was vital that the health service got to grips with some of the biggest areas of spending.

Picking up on this week’s announcement of curbs on the use of employment agencies, Stevens said temporary staffing costs were the single largest cause of hospital deficits. He added: “That is entirely understandable; it is undesirable and it is unsustainable.”

Leaders can expect further measures on spending, he said, along with a “more muscular approach to using NHS purchasing power”.

New models for learning disability care

Stevens told delegates that a closure programme was needed for some long-stay institutions for people with a learning disability. He said NHS England was inviting 47 clinical commissioning groups to collaborate on new service models and a transition programme for people with learning disabilities.

Related: Rob Webster: 'If we preserve the NHS in aspic, it will die'

A focus on public health

Reiterating points made in a recent speech by the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, Stevens said there would be a focus on public health issues, including smoking, alcohol, exercise and obesity.

He called for a national conversation about the role of parents, schools and the food industry in tackling obesity.

“Health is what we are after,” he said. “Healthcare is what we do when we have not got it ... The H in the NHS is health.”