Understanding how staff believe elective surgical hubs are working

With elective surgical hubs being introduced by the NHS to tackle the 6 million + waiting list in England for elective treatment, The Health Foundation’s Improvement Analytics Unit wanted to gauge their impact on staff, patients and productivity. They also wanted to understand any blockers or enablers for achieving these impacts. Thiscovery helped facilitate the gathering of these vital insights, with engagement from Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) throughout.

Participants

83 members of NHS staff working in or with elective surgical hubs, including those managing them.

Methods

Online survey, Likert scales, free-text questions.

Impact

Quick, qualitative insights to supplement a broader quantitative evaluation and to help develop effective advice and support for GIRFT to improve hubs across the country.

Delivered on behalf of:

What we did

Received views from 83 targeted stakeholders with survey open for 4 months
Asked participants to indicate how much they agreed or disagreed with statements about the benefits of hubs to patients, staff and productivity using Likert scales.
Gathered in-depth views through open-ended questions about what works, what doesn’t, and why.
Enabled the sharing of these first-person stories through a bespoke survey experience designed to prompt the sharing of honest, insightful experiences.

Key insights

From the codebook thematic analysis that followed this consultation came the following learnings:

1

The value of hub working – staff were frequently positive about hubs. Ring-fencing and a sense of increased autonomy were credited with improved patient outcomes, staff wellbeing, and productivity, although this was dependent on senior leader buy-in.

2

Facing wider NHS challenges – broader NHS issues affect how well hubs can work, including: staff shortages and difficulties recruiting, lack of funding, old facilities and estate, the growing role of the independent sector, and poor coordination across different trusts and services across the patient pathway.

3

Unintended consequences – staff were concerned that shifting low-complexity cases away from acute sites affects acute site staff morale, and that the emphasis on productivity was reducing training opportunities. Patients who cannot access a hub or are not suitable for a hub may face inequities in their care.

Improvement in action

This consultation gave The Health Foundation a valuable pulse reading into the effectiveness of this NHS strategy and solution, as well as where there are gaps and shortfalls.

The learnings from this staff engagement activity were shared with GIRFT and, together alongside a quantitative evaluation carried out by The Health Foundation, will help shape new advice and support for hubs nationwide.

"Thiscovery provided us with advice on survey design and rapidly built us an online survey that could be sent to staff at elective hubs… We’ve had great support from Jenni and the Thiscovery team and we’ll definitely use them again."

Carl Mayers

Assistant Director, Head of the Improvement Analytics Unit

The Health Foundation

Outputs

Preprint

The role of elective surgical hubs within the National Health Service in England: an online qualitative survey of staff

View output ❯

Journal article

Quantitative evaluation on elective surgical hubs

View output ❯

Understand how a Thiscovery data collection project can generate quick, qualitative insights to inform your improvement campaign. Get in touch to schedule a call.