Cutting costs without losing blood

Abstract

The holy grail for the NHS is how to minimise costs without endangering service quality, particularly to patients. This mandate to cut—expressed as ‘save x%’ is passed down to the various departments within an organisation where the great horse trade begins. To protect patient-facing services this often means that disproportionate cuts are made in the back office, including IT. Unless done with great acumen, this can be akin to cutting off a hand to save the vital organs, with harmful consequences. This article looks at the issues involved in balancing the cost/quality equation in an area that crucial to the good health of virtually all health services—technology.