Nuffield Hospitals Gears up for the Challenge of the NHS Improvement Plan 2004
Nuffield Hospitals' Requirement
A challenge for all Independent Sector providers of healthcare was the Government’s NHS Improvement Plan 2004 which stated that, ”In 2008, patients will have the right to choose from any provider” and “to support capacity and choice, by 2008, independent sector providers will provide up to 15% of procedures on behalf of the NHS.” The NHS Improvement Plan 2004 assumes that the overall NHS budget will continue rising, reaching £90billion in 2008. This makes the procurement of independent healthcare large by any measure, potentially in billions of pounds over the contract as a whole. A strong contender for this business, Nuffield Hospitals, has since its establishment in 1957, grown to become the largest not-for-profit, independent, hospital group in the UK. Nuffield Hospitals quickly realised that it was not equipped to deal with the volume of complex bids likely to be generated by the NHS Improvement Plan 2004.
WPM’s Involvement
Nuffield Hospitals turned to WPM as bidding experts to provide guidance and support to address the challenge of meeting the requirements of the NHS Improvement Plan 2004. The first task was to scope the size of the bid phase – something many organisations underestimate. With his considerable experience of bidding, WPM’s CEO - Chris Weatherstone - was able to provide metrics for the sizing the bid phase and helped Matthew James - General Manager Business Development NHS Markets - build the Business Case to secure bid phase funding. As a natural consequence of the work already undertaken, WPM’s consultants were asked to set up the bidding environment for Nuffield Hospitals, including the policies, processes and support surround. WPM helped raise the profile and governance of bidding by instigating the concept of Bid Boards and Bid Stage assessments, ensuring that the senior management within Nuffield Hospitals were fully briefed on the bids. WPM has a number of its staff playing key roles in the bid team ranging from bid director, bid managers, project planners and bid support. Matthew James says, “It’s great to see how bidding operates now – it gives me a real sense of achievement remembering where we started from. I have a lot of respect for the expertise in WPM”. The CEO WPM acted as an independent and experienced guide through the early phases of the bid phase for David Mobbs – CEO Nuffield Hospitals.
WPM Delivered
- Documented and comprehensive bid and risk processes, tailored for Nuffield Hospitals, based on current industry best practice
- An innovative bid support workbook to manage the bid process
- Bid and risk workshops to introduce the concept of bidding into selected parts of Nuffield Hospitals
Stephen James - General Manager Major Commercial Projects -commented that, “The processes WPM developed for Nuffield Hospitals gave us a substantial base to start from, and has allowed us to further develop our bidding capabilities.WPM has afforded Nuffield Hospitals the flexibility to use professional staff as required", Stephen James continues, “I can rely on WPM staff, I feel fully supported by their commitment, professionalism and integrity –Chris Weatherstone has an outstanding ability to find high calibre Bid Managers.”
Benefits
The most striking benefit is how easily Nuffield Hospitals has adapted to the bidding environment – a testimony both to the work undertaken by WPM and its staff and development of a new bid team within Nuffield Hospitals. A maturity of approach to bidding, the establishment and embedding into the culture of the organisation of bid processes and routines, has been quite remarkable given the relatively short timescales for this transformation to take place. Management within Nuffield Hospitals are fully briefed and the Bid Board and Main Board decision making processes guide the bid team without the need to micro-manage the day to day running of the bid organisation. There is a quiet calm in the bid area of Nuffield Hospitals towards the end of a bid – an outcome that many other large organisations would envy. Trish Cassidy – Commercial Director said, “We recognised that we needed to professionalize bidding and we have achieved what we set out to do, I am very pleased.”
Summary
In summary, Nuffield Hospitals has made a step change in its ability and competencies to respond to complex healthcare requirements with elegant, comprehensive and value for money solutions. This was undertaken in extremely tight timescales with an open-minded and “can do” approach, a real testimony to the ethos and spirit of the organisation. WPM played a significant part in this transformation and is pleased to see that Nuffield Hospitals is making “its own” the comprehensive policy, procedures and automated tools developed and implemented by WPM on Nuffield Hospital’s behalf. The use of WPM staff has allowed the bid team to be flexible in meeting the bid timetable and differing staffing requirements. David Mobbs, Chief Executive of Nuffield Hospitals said, “WPM have been of great help to me, I have valued their input at a strategic level and can see their experience and guidance in operation in my Commercial teams.”
