David White, Head of Operations, Imaging, at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, followed Leigh’s presentation to explain how his trust had made use of the benchmarking data.
Whilst David jokingly admitted there was an element of being a ‘nosy neighbour’, he said one of the main benefits of having data available was to see which trusts were excelling in areas such as waiting times, and seek them out to open a dialogue.
“I want to speak to my colleagues and find out what they’re doing. If we do this in isolation it’s a waste of time,” he emphasised.
David said his trust had used the data to improve outcomes and quality of care, match demand with capacity, improve the workforce skill mix and significantly influence local commissioners to invest in improving diagnostics.
There was also a word of caution, however. David said that collecting data can be a laborious task, given its continuous nature. He added that there is some work to be done in defining criteria, and again he stressed the futility of trusts reviewing data in isolation, rendering it more ineffective.
“Let’s understand the data together see if we can help each other,” he said. “It’s about being open and committed to partnership.”