Chaired by the Rt Hon Stephen Dorrell, this excellent session at the Healthcare World Festival examined how the UK’s world renowned provider can expand into the international sector, says Fabian Sutch-Daggett
The NHS has long been a bastion for world-leading healthcare provision. However, as we have seen through the coronavirus pandemic, even the world’s best systems can be put under immense strain and pressure in the most trying times.
Despite this, the NHS has managed to perform remarkably. There has not been another time in modern history when health systems across the globe committed so fully to innovation and collaboration on such a massive scale. The reason that this innovation occurred was not ideal, however, the lessons we have learned from this must not be cast aside as the world begins to turn the tide against coronavirus.
At present, the UK is at long last moving out of its coronavirus restrictions, largely thanks to lockdown measures and vaccination uptake. However, many nations are still in a deep struggle with the virus, and it must not be assumed that while some countries are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel that all are. The question is, how can the NHS contribute to these nations, and foster good relationships not just to end the pandemic, but for the future as well?
Speaking at this panel alongside the Rt Hon Stephen Dorrell was Emma Sheldon MBE, former Specialist Lead of the NHS Export Collaborative, Professor Ged Byrne of Health Education England; Carly Caton, Partner at Bevan Brittan; Alistair Russell, Director of Business Development, Imperial Private Healthcare; Altaf Kara, Strategy Director at South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, and Chris Born, Head of NHS Collaborative Exports at Healthcare UK.
Going digital
Alistair Russell kicked off the session by highlighting one system which we have all become very accustomed to – online meeting software. Despite many of us originally believing this to be a quick-fix for a few weeks, the benefits of this enormous uptick in digital meetings will leave the NHS in a far better place to do business abroad:
“The key thing that has changed for me is the NHS adoption of Microsoft Teams. It has quite literally transformed our ability to communicate globally. We are currently in the closing phases of negotiating a big international partnership, and all of that has been done virtually. This would never have been possible before the pandemic as we can distribute a lot of information to a lot of people much more easily.”
Altaf Kara echoed these sentiments, stating that the “massive realisation of what can be achieved electronically” has been a major learning point throughout the pandemic.
He went on to examine how despite the benefits which have arisen from the pandemic, they do in fact result in a paradox – as the impact of the pandemic continues to hinder the services within the NHS – limiting capability to operate outside of the organisation itself.
“The paradox lies in the fact that we all have to deal with the impact of the pandemic at home: enormous waiting lists, for example, and I think that makes it very difficult for both the NHS centrally and Trusts themselves to operate externally,” says Mr Kara.
Adding to the discussion, Emma Sheldon noted that the rise of digital communication has not only changed the way in which we operate.
“Communication has blown away the cultural norms around how we do business internationally – but to add to that, the ways of doing business digitally have completely changed our business models. The pace of innovation, the scale of change – the way that we’re actually doing business with each other,” says Emma.
“What really struck me was the collaboration of teams around a problem. It’s a very unique situation for us all to be facing the same problem globally. Hopefully we will never face it again, but the teamwork between organisations globally was a real strength.”
Chris Born also stressed the importance of connection, highlighting his experiences in helping internationational organisations collaborate with domestic organisations, and vice-versa.
“One of the big realisations of the pandemic is how inter-connected we all are. We all face similar challenges, some greater than others – and we have a responsibility to help one another, and work towards unblocking barriers to innovation and collaboration between organisations across the globe,” he said.
“We’ve found ways of making healthcare more accessible to patients, when access has been restricted for all. The complete shift of primary care has been a remarkable achievement, and a skill which we can offer far beyond the pandemic.”
As such, organisations must be willing and ready, not only to continue utilising digital innovations after the pandemic is over, but also to reach a point where they are strong enough to divert resources to international opportunities. Only time will tell if the NHS is up to the task.
Shifting focus
Another major change which has been seen throughout the pandemic, in the NHS and overseas, is the dramatic shift of focus onto frontline services. While international business may now be made easier through the enormous improvement and widespread uptake of digital communications, the complete halt of travel, health tourism, and patients from overseas have decimated many business models.
The question is – what can we do about it? “Because conventional travel and international business hasn’t been possible, people have entirely changed their outlook on how we communicate and forge partnerships,” said Carly Caton of Bevan Brittan.
“However, that lack of travel and inbound patients has had a big impact on many of our partners. What we have seen is that they have totally diverted from their normal operations within international partnerships and business development overseas towards frontline, COVID roles.”
“This shift has created a vested interest in surge hospitals and remote healthcare systems, which the NHS has done really well over the past year, and is something that we could perhaps bring internationally.”
Despite the horrific circumstances which forced many nations around the world to build surge hospitals and rapidly implement brand new systems for large influxes of patients, the pandemic has proved it is indeed possible to do so – and to do well. This will be a lesson not forgotten after COVID is over – and something which we must take forward into the future – whatever it holds for us.
The knowledge economy
During more than 70 years of experience, the NHS has learned many lessons, suffered many failures, and had fantastic successes. However, all of this is for nought if the NHS cannot utilise this information on an international scale. Elaborating on the need for the NHS to capitalise on the value of experience and knowledge was Professor Ged Byrne, speaking from both his experiences in both frontline and arms-length roles throughout the pandemic.
“What I’ve learnt over the last 15 months is the important opportunity, and even moral obligation, for the NHS to focus on the knowledge economy,” he commented.
“The reality is we have decades of experience making every mistake in the world in order to deliver the highest quality healthcare, and that knowledge is exceptionally useful, whether that be for systems, leadership, transformation, or improvement. Not only are there potential opportunities for the NHS here, there is an immediate moral obligation – we are privileged to have this information, and we must share it.”
In addition, he emphasised the need for smaller-scale, peer-to-peer relationships from within the NHS to overseas. “Most of the bespoke solutions for the pandemic as they’ve been managed within the NHS have been developed from the bottom up. There are differences between every provider, there are nuances involved, and we’ve made a real error over the last few decades by not recognising the importance of those front-line individuals, and the impact that they can have on a global stage.”
In conclusion
In all, the challenges which the NHS has faced – not only in the pandemic – provides us with an invaluable resource for doing good within the global healthcare market. Although COVID has hindered operations, turned systems upside down, and forced us to adapt and to change our systems entirely, we can continue to grow and develop the solutions which have worked, and also continue to collaborate and fix the issues with systems we haven’t quite figured out yet.
All this, however, can only be possible through international partnership – and there is no better time to work together than at this critical moment in the history of healthcare.