Once again another awful story about the failure to protect the vulnerable in the health system, then another story about unacceptable pressures on emergency care. the first reaction is often to set up another review – the ‘something must be done’ approach and a review is clearly doing something (isn’t it?). But with scores of serious case reviews still be carried out, I have heard comments to the effect that perhaps we should hold on the reviews and start implementing the solutions! At the core of these solutions is a need to ‘get the parts of the system to work together’. Clearly the health system is in need of some effective collaborative governance and behaviours across its many internal boundaries. But this made me think about other places where this collaboration works pretty well and if there were any lessons that health could learn from very different businesses. I chose international travel! Here is a system with multiple parties and no one organisation is control and yet, a vulnerable elderly person can still travel from London to Sidney changing planes in Singapore – get there safely and feel cared for! If you are interested to read more, see my article in the Health Service Journal at the link below.
> Read the online article
