Shadow Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, has outlined the Conservative’s plans for increasing efficiency in the NHS should the party be elected in the coming months. Writing in Policy Review Magazine, Mr Lansley highlights equality, efficiency and excellence as the three key target areas for the party, with opening up the NHS to increased competition seemingly a central factor to achieving this success.

The suggestion made by Mr Lansley is to allow approved charities and private organisations to directly compete with NHS hospitals for the provision of care to guarantee “care is provided by only the most efficient and effective organisations”. The creation of a competitive market is to ensure NHS hospitals streamline productivity in order to remain as the care provider, although with the contrasting funding and resources available to many private organsiations, surely this is not without risk?

It is not only external competition that the Conservatives look to invoke, however, as Mr Lansley also outlines a proposal of how hospitals will be awarded funding based on the treatment costs incurred by “efficient” hospitals – this will be the default costing model and no additional funds will be provided to those hospitals that do not make the grade.

Should the Conservatives be elected, such changes would require precise monitoring in order to have any chance of succeeding, with business intelligence central to implementation and ongoing management. Ardentia’s patient level costing solution allows clinicians and financial managers to record the exact cost of any patient treatment and calculate how this varies from the allocated government funding. This makes it easier to keep track of any discrepancies or savings, which is vital to effective and efficient management.

In addition to the increased pressure on hospitals, the Tories also reveal plans to charge GPs with the responsibility of managing patient care costs, making Patient Level Costing even more invaluable. Mr Langley writes: “With part of GPs’ pay dependent upon the results of their patient’s treatment, they will have a direct incentive to buy the most efficient services on behalf of their patients, because they will be able to keep any savings and use them to reinvest in their patient’s care.”

If clinicians are to play such a central role in the financial decisions of patient care then it is imperative that they have the best resources available to coordinate the treatment options that will deliver the highest quality of care. Here is where business intelligence can offer rewards not only to financial managers and clinicians, but ultimately and most importantly, it can offer great rewards to patients.