The National Orthopaedic Alliance (NOA) kicked off March by hosting its fourth Cost Improvement Prorammes (CIP) workshop which offered staff from NOA member organisations the opportunity to find out about successes and learnings across a wide range of CIP approaches.
The two-hour session which was attended by over 40 members of staff from NOA member organisations, was opened by workshop Co-Chair Caroline Owusu-Bennoah, Chief Financial Officer, The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (RNOH). Caroline welcomed participants and introduced session Co-Chair Amanda Gaston, Deputy Director of Finance at The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (ROH).
Amanda Gaston led the first presentation of the day which focussed on getting participants thinking about delivering CIP post pandemic and what it means for CIP as we enter this new phase of COVID. The presentation, which received many questions and engagement from participants, looked at system wide efficiencies, prioritisation, structure and shared ROH’s CIP planning experiences.
Irrum Afzal, Research and Outcomes Manager at the South West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre (SWLEOC) followed on from Amanda with a thought provoking presentation looking at Sustainability in Orthopaedics. Irrum shared SWLEOC’s experience of introducing initiatives to help the organisation meet the NHS’s net zero carbon emissions target. She looked at the environmental, economical and social audits the organisation had done to date. The presentation was of much interest to participants as Irrum highlighted cost improvement initiatives that had the important added benefit of resulting in a greener, more sustainable organisation.
Ahead of participants heading into breakout rooms, Caroline Owusu-Bennoah shared information around delivery, reporting and governance both internally and across the North Central London ICS. This generated discussion ahead of attendees going into breakout groups.
The two break out groups met for an hour and covered topics including Identifying CIP, Planning & Approaches, Delivery, Reporting & Governance both internally and within ICSs. Participants shared learnings, best practice as well as challenges experienced at their organisations.
Amanda Gaston of ROH said, “The NOA CIP workshop was thought-provoking, engaging and uplifting. The participants shared their own experiences and lots of best practice was identified. There is a wealth of knowledge and experience on how we can plan, deliver and report on productivity and efficiency savings – we have so much to learn from each other. It was great to be able to prompt people to think differently about productivity and efficiency. There’s a real opportunity for delivering benefits beyond the cost savings such as quality improvement. I am looking forward to the next session already”.
Caroline Owusu-Bennoah of RNOH said, “NOA’s CIP workshop was a great session. I was fascinated with the sustainability efficiencies at SWELOC and look forward to continuing conversations with workshop attendees to see what best practice we can replicate at RNOH”.
Ann Hoey, NOA Programme Director said, “This latest CIP workshop was fantastic. It really highlighted the appetite NOA members have to share and collaborate on issues related to cost improvement. It was great to see members thinking outside of the box in the discussions and we look forward to facilitating more CIP workshops in future.”
The ‘Our Work‘ page of the NOA website includes background on our CIP activity to date. Even more CIP details, resources and updates are in the members area of the website.