Innovation is key to improving NHS services, survey suggests

A top scientist has said new ideas must be supported and encouraged if the health service is to improve as a survey revealed NHS workers thought innovation was key to cutting waiting lists.

Some 90% of workers who took part in InnoScot Health’s questionnaire agreed that innovation had to be at the heart of improving NHS Scotland services and helping to tackle the pandemic backlog.

Professor Dame Anna Dominiczak, Scotland’s chief scientist for health, said she believed that to “rise to current challenges – and look beyond them too – we need to support and encourage fresh NHS ideas, while strengthening partnerships across the sector”.

“More and better collaboration, with targeted and expert support, will help get innovation into patients’ hands quicker,” she said.

“This survey shows that now is absolutely the right time to do that; to really utilise the vast enthusiasm, talent and depth of healthcare expertise that we have here in Scotland, take the workforce’s most transformative, innovative ideas and accelerate their development and ultimate adoption back into the NHS.”

Some 71% of health workers who took part in the survey said they had offered ideas on how to enhance the delivery of healthcare on one or more occasion, and that almost two thirds of NHS staff considered themselves innovators “to some extent” and said they had ideas to improve the service which is currently facing one of its most difficult winters.

The findings come after a questionnaire by Ashbrook Research, which saw 602 responses between October 3 and November 4.

The survey found more than nine out of 10 respondents believed three factors in particular would motivate them to propose an innovative idea: to drive efficiency; to make a difference to patients; and to make the working lives easy for themselves and their colleagues.

Prof Dame Dominiczak, who is a world-leading cardiovascular scientist and clinical academic, said that the “challenges facing NHS Scotland are well reported, however, as we work towards the modernisation of NHS Scotland, this survey makes it clear that staff are a major part of the solution”.

The survey also found those who have worked in NHS Scotland for less than five years are least likely to express an idea, at 61%, but they were more likely to the longer they worked in the service.

Some 78% of those who had worked in NHS Scotland for more than 20 years had contributed an idea. They are also least likely to identify money as a significant motivation in suggesting an idea, at 30% of those who responded.

InnoScot Health works with NHS Scotland to identify, protect, develop and commercialise healthcare innovations.

Graham Watson, its executive chairman, said the survey had “illuminated a positive picture of support for transformative NHS-led innovation”.

“We have now arrived at a key juncture for NHS Scotland amid significant winter challenges – and it must be considered an opportune time to leverage the promise of pandemic-inspired new ways of working,” he said.

“The NHS workforce message is clear – we can and want to innovate at this pivotal time for healthcare.”