Developing Business Cases for NHS and International Charitable Healthcare Services.
12-Mar-2020: One of the key skills for modern medical leadership that doctors do not learn in medical school is how to write a business case. Business cases are important because they unlock resources to deliver change whether that be the introduction of new treatment modalities, service changes or the adoption of new technologies and evidence based practice. Doctors across the health system are in involved in programmes of continuous quality improvement (QI) across all specialties, while many doctors are also championing charitable medical outreach initiatives overseas. Because of this an NHS Trust in the South East of England invited Res Consortium to deliver an afternoon of training to its SAS Doctors to provide them with the knowledge, skills and templates to be better able to develop transformation business cases in the future. They were introduced a number of business concepts including Michael Poster’s Value Chain, financial models and the different types of efficiency programme. We also looked at business planning templates. The case examples we looked at included: delivering ophthalmology to people in rural settings overseas, Posterior Tibial Stimulation in OAB, a dedicated Doctor for the Observation Lounge and Anaesthetic Blocks for Rib Fracture Patients. All doctors left the training with a draft business case on a page for their specialty, meaning the training will deliver impactful change for the trust.