Topics
Explore our key topics to find resources and tools which will keep you up to date and informed on key issues in healthcare finance and governance.
Digital technologies such as digital medicine, genomics, artificial intelligence and robotics have a huge potential to transform the delivery of healthcare. These technologies can empower patients to participate actively in their care, with a greater focus on wellbeing and prevention.
The NHS in England is responsible for an estimated 4-5% of the country’s carbon footprint - this needs to be reduced.
Good financial management and reporting are the core of the activities undertaken by NHS finance teams. These areas cover monthly reporting and the annual report and accounts process through to the management of capital and budgeting.
The financial regime covers everything from financial settlements for the NHS as a whole through to how funds are allocated down to systems or health boards and the payment systems used to remunerate providers of healthcare services.
Governance and audit in the NHS cover the system of controls and processes that promote probity and propriety in an organisation’s conduct and help to assure stakeholders that the main financial and operational risks are being managed.
Health inequalities are unfair and avoidable differences in health between different groups of people.
The NHS is increasingly integrating services across primary, community and secondary care service – aiming to improve both physical and mental health outcomes. Working with other sectors, such as social care, is also vital as the focus switches to proactively managing the whole population’s health and providing treatment or support at the right time and in the right place.
The strength of the NHS lies in its workforce, which accounts for 70% of its day-to-day running costs. Recruitment, retention and development and using staff optimally are all crucial to the successful delivery of services. Staff development is also key within finance teams to ensure the service continues to have finance practitioners with the right skills now and in future.
Value in the NHS means delivering the best possible outcomes within the resources available. It can be thought of in terms of allocative value (spending the right level of resources on each patient group to maximise value for the whole population) and technical efficiency (reducing the unit cost of an activity).