Strategies to reduce health inequalities in planned hospital care

Following the publication of the Socio-economic inequalities in access to planned hospital care report in May 2021, the Midlands Decision Support Network are working on a follow-up report to support local systems to address these systematic inequalities. The follow-up project aims to answers 4 questions:

1. What would equality of access look like?
2. What strategies and interventions might STPs/ICSs adopt to reduce inequalities?
3. How might an STP/ICS decide which strategies to adopt?
4. How might an STP/ICS monitor the impact of its strategies?

We will do this by:

• Estimating, for each STP/ICS and deprivation group, how many additional or fewer planned care admissions would be required to deliver equity
• Describe and categorise the various strategies that the STP/ICS might adopt, for example:
  • waiting list prioritisation
  • decision coaches
  • minimising DNAs and cancellations
  • improving hospital accessibility
  • improving the quality of conversation between patients and GP/Consultant
  • enhanced monitoring and board reporting
• Set out a framework that STPs/ICSs might use to select the strategies they wish to adopt and how this approach might be implemented
• Identify and define metrics that STPs/ICSs might use to monitor whether their strategies to reduce planned care inequalities are having an effect