Target delivery, service modernisation and system reform: Reinventing planning in the English National Health Service

Abstract

Purpose

Aims to focus on the imperative to achieve national activity and performance targets in secondary care as set out in the NHS Plan.

Design/methodology/approach

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).

Findings

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.

Originality/value

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.

Citation

Coupe, M. (2006), "Target delivery, service modernisation and system reform: Reinventing planning in the English National Health Service", Journal of Health Organization and Management, Vol. 20 No. 3, pp. 253-262. https://doi.org/10.1108/14777260610662771