HFMA 2017: FIP using Model Hospital

David Hill, NHS Improvement financial improvement programme director, told a workshop on the FIP that in its second iteration the programme had started using Model Hospital data. ‘Going forward I think it’s going to be a great tool,’ he said.
‘The Model Hospital is very good if we use it. We now have two years of data and it will get better. The more we use it, the more we understand it, the better it will get. In two years’ time I think it will be the most useful tool we have in the NHS so let’s make it work.’

Providing an update of the financial improvement programme, Mr Hill said it was about rapid progress in a trust’s financial position. ‘It’s about a quick diagnostic, “What's the opportunity and how will it happen?”, he said.

The majority of trusts in the second FIP programme (FIP 2) have backloaded CIPs – some had ideas that had not been fully worked up and the improvement programme was there to support them do this and turn the ideas into savings on the ground, he added.

In total there are 16 trusts in FIP 2, seeking total savings of £80m. The areas of focus were largely unsurprising – workforce, procurement and corporate services – though he was surprised that some potentially ‘reasonably sized opportunities’ were not being looked at by trusts. These included savings in theatres and outpatients.

In a separate workshop, NHS Improvement senior advisor Michael Dimov described how the oversight body was developing productivity metrics that could be used in future Model Hospital projects for community and mental health trusts.

He said some of the sections in the current Model Hospital (which cover acute trusts) could be adapted for a community or mental health dashboard, such as workforce measures. Others could be expanded and tailored to the services offered in these providers.

And, while some measures had been agreed with its trial cohort of more than 20 providers, his team had identified some fundamental issues, such as when trying to ensure benchmarking compared like for like, even in relatively large, well established areas – for example some providers had different definitions of district nursing.