Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 17 October 2016 to Question 48022, how he monitors the performance of clinical commissioning groups and health service providers on their delivery of the Getting it right first time requirements; and if he will make a statement.

Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) was a recommendation in Lord Carter’s report on Hospital Productivity published in February 2016. NHS Improvement is responsible for delivering the recommendations of that report. It is accountable to the Secretary of State for Health for the delivery of the overall programme and the Secretary of State regularly reviews progress. NHS Improvement has provided an update on its plans for delivering and monitoring performance in individual clinical commissioning groups and health service providers.

The orthopaedic GIRFT pilot was led by the programme lead Professor Tim Briggs. The GIRFT team mined nationally available data sources and produced a report for each provider of orthopaedics in England that included a consolidated view of all available data and metrics pertaining to each provider’s clinical and financial performance at a service line/individual specialty level. Professor Briggs then visited every trust in England to discuss their data in order to reflect on variation in clinical practice, management approach and variations in procurement. The reports benchmark providers nationally and explore how clinical evidence is considered and informs practice. This is a highly detailed approach facilitating an extensive understanding of the links between practice, outcome and cost drivers, which in turn enabled a series of recommendations to be developed benefitting quality of care and finances of both providers and commissioners. Following the provider level reports and visits, a national report and recommendations were produced. The Model Hospital will provide a platform for an ongoing series of dashboards to track performance against key performance metrics. The GIRFT team will be working closely with NHS England’s RightCare programme which is aimed at commissioners to align their work to achieve joint objectives.