Speech to the London Clinical Senate on risk and reward

We were recently asked to speak at the London Clinical Senate, on innovation. The focus of the day was patient centric care and getting the risk/reward balance right. This is what we had to say:

Each and every one of you in this room is facing a funding gap. Patients want more. Activity is going up, funding not so much.

What if we could change that?

Well I cant. But what I can do is save each trust in this room an average of £1.5m, tomorrow.

Who here has a mobile phone? 93% of adults in the UK do. They've become the preferred way to book holidays, trains, cinemas, resturants.

It's changed the FTSE and it's changed the high street. Rather that fightinting that shift, we harness it. DrDoctor uses those phones to empower patients to manage their own clinic logistics, solving the core problem – getting the Right patient, right place, right time, with the right information.

Patients can view, change and schedule outpatient appointments using our online and text message based tools. Once they’re onboarded we then move patients up the digital value chain, for example, using outcome measures and need based scheduling to slash face to face followup appointments, while giving you better insight into the health of your patients.

We switched this on at Guys and St Thomas in May. In 5 months we're in 14/16 directorates. DNA rates are down 30% across all specialities. Throughput is up 5%. We’ve delivered £800k of cash and are on track to save £2m.

We’re doing this for 4m patient a year. Our stats show patients who DNA are 40% more likely to end up in A&E in the next two weeks. Hanuman hospital in Philadelphia, using a similar system, reduced 30 day readmission rates by 10%. The system benefits are huge.

If we replicated what we’ve done at GSTT across London tomorrow, we’d save 100m, every year.

Getting digital transformation right at scale is about people. By focusing on what patients want – enabling their own transactions, and working closely with teams in your trust, we can very quickly create change, and deliver better care, for less money.

So what can you do? Earlier we talked about risk, radicalism. Looking down the list when I arrived, I am talking to most of your hospitals. At every one, teams understand the value but need help to take the next step. There is huge excitement, then we hit molasses. This is doable. It's available now. But for this to work we need strong clinical leadership and to take these risks. My ask is for you to help take those risks, cut through the molasses and together create change today.