Target delivery, service modernisation and system reform: reinventing planning in the English National Health Service.
OBJECTIVE
Aims to focus on the imperative to achieve national activity and performance targets in secondary care as set out in the NHS Plan.


METHODS
The paper is in the form of "notes from the front line" that are based on the experience of the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust (RCHT).


RESULTS
These include that planning needs to be understood as the means by which the NHS manages its future; that planning needs to become more technically and methodologically sophisticated; that planning is a process rather than a description of an organisational function; and that the NHS will only resolve the shortage of planning competencies once planning is seen as a management disciple.


CONCLUSIONS
On the basis of the feedback received from drafts of this paper, it is suggested that the conclusions drawn are generally applicable across the English health service.
Coupe
Mike
M
Peninsula Medical School, Royal Cornwall Hospitals, Cornwall, UK. Michael.Coupe@rcht.cornwall.nhs.uk
D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000379:methods*; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000145:classification; D006302:Health Services Research; D006752:Hospital Planning / Q000379:methods*; D006779:Hospitals, Public / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D017146:Models, Organizational; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D018802:Patient-Centered Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D017064:Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D012922:Social Change; D013222:State Medicine / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards; D017749:Total Quality Management; D006113:United Kingdom