Failure demand: a concept evaluation in UK primary care

The purpose of this paper is to assess failure demand as a lean concept that assists in waste analysis during quality improvement activity. The authors assess whether the concept’s limited use is a missed opportunity to help us understand improvement priorities, given that a UK Government requirement for public service managers to report failure demand has been removed.

The authors look at the literature across the public sector and then apply the failure demand concept to the UK’s primary healthcare system. The UK National Health Service (NHS) demand data are analysed and the impact on patient care is elicited from patient interviews.

The study highlighted the concept’s value, showing how primary care systems often generate failure demand partly owing to existing demand and capacity management practices. This demand is deflected to other systems, such as the accident and emergency department, with a considerable detrimental impact on patient experience.

More research is needed to fully understand how best to exploit the failure demand concept within wider healthcare as there are many potential barriers to its appropriate and successful application.

The authors highlight three practical barriers to using failure demand: first, demand within the healthcare system is poorly understood; second, systems improvement understanding is limited; and third, need to apply the concept for improvement and not just for reporting purposes.

The authors provide an objective and independent insight into failure demand that has not previously been seen in the academic literature, specifically in relation to primary healthcare.