Facilitating Changes

Task 1 Factors Drive Change In Hsc

1.1 Key factors that drive change in health and social care services

The importance of the demographic factors that drives the change in health and social care are -

Age Structure - The increase in demand in the health and social care is due to the change in age structure of the population. At the local level, the demand of services are age associated in comparison with the weighted national capitation formula (Ogden, 2012). This can be understood in the sense that elderly patients are not likely to be admitted on very frequent basis but have longer duration of stays. The age group which requires the highest levels of hearth care services are -

• Infancy – This age group requires advanced treatment for hygiene, infectious diseases, immunization to prevent infant mortality rates (Grol and et. al., 2013).
• Fertile ages of females – Increased care is required for medical supervision in childbirth and pregnancy.
• Old age – At this age, multiple issue are not uncommon, effect of treatments are rather slow or ineffective, many treatments lead to other illnesses rather than curing the present ailment.

There is also another aspect in the demographic structure that demands increased need for health and social care which is genetic, culture  and ethnic background. Within the last three decades, the nation has welcomed people from different parts of the world (Stoyanova, 2014). Around 1 million people form all parts of the world have arrived in UK. It is believed that people from different backgrounds suffered from different kinds of ailment which increase the need for additional services. Research also suggests that individual from specific cultures who wear fully covered dresses all round the day suffered from vitamin D deficiency (Haruo, 2012).

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Another important demographic factor that has a considerable influence on the health and social care is the social status of migrants. There were significant changes in the membership of European union.

All these factors are responsible for increasing in demand of health and social care services in UK. Combined by the effects of high birth rates after the World War II and migration of various cultural groups have increased the medical conditions that demand care to prevent them from worsening situations (Kwasnicka and et. al., 2013). The nation has also placed limits on certain medical conditions in terms of rights of work and availing benefits. This has further resulted in increasing unknown carriers of severe medical conditions as individual are unable to declare Thermoses to seek treatment. The change in the demographic structure in present time with majority of population heading towards old age, the nation is much more concerned towards increaser the health and social care services to improve and increase the life expectancy (Edwards and et. al., 2012). In addition to this, people are expecting more in the health and social care services in terms of quality of care and reduced cost.

The merger between the two hospitals would bring enhanced quality of care with the changes in technology. It is also expected that the deficit of Poole will also convert to court savings as evident from the statement of CEO.

1.2 Challenged that key factors of change brings to health and social care services

The changes taking place with the merger of hospitals will be impacted by the external business environment. The Competition Commission (CC) and Office of Fair Trading (OFT) are two independent agencies in UK that governs and supervise the merger deals. It is important that health care organization follow a legal procedure and abide by the law to aim for the merger (Kmietowicz, 2013). The two agencies ensure that merger deals between two or more organization aims for the betterment of the public and not intended towards creating a monopoly situation. The investigating agencies conduit enquires related with the deals to ensure healthy competition in the market.

The aspect of public awareness is an important element to drive the change so as to protect the consumer interest and rights. OFT while acting as an economic regulator in the nation enforced consumer protection and competition law (Zachary, 2011). The objective is to create a healthy market that provide favourable condition to consumers while ensuring fair dealing of businesses. It also prohibits unfair trading practices, cartels and scams. Any possible deal seems to affect the consumer rights of competition in the market allows the agencies to stop the deal from further processing.

The Care Act of 2014 has been established to change the practices from just treating illness to preventive care in order to reduce financial burden of treatment. There are assistive technologies that support the training needs of severe patients. There are many severe disease like Alzheimer which cannot be treated by medicines. In such case, the health care organization can use assistive technologies to aid the treatment (Martin, 2010). The assistive technologies available are – hearing aids, glasses, memo minder, medication dispensers which help patients to move independently. Dementia patients have also seen considerable improvement in their health and medical condition supported by the assistive technologies. These technologies reduce the financial burden on the patients and family as these treatment can also be used at homes (MacDonald, 2005). Once the patient is familiar with technology, they are no longer require to stay in the hospital or care facilitate to available the services or personal attendant. The technologies will also reduces the financial burden on the Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (PHFT) and the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (RBCHFT) as they need not to admit patient for longer time. They can divert the service of employee towards other patient.

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Task 2 Evaluate Recent Changes On Hsc

2.1 How could proposed improvement to quality, or innovation of services an be evaluated

Different effective ways are being present with the help of which Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch hospital NHS trust and Poole hospital NHS foundation can evaluate whether service improvement has taken place within the enterprise after merger or not. Such effective ways are as follows:

Self evaluation: Medical practitioners and care staff can undertake the process of self evaluation with the help of which it can be known whether quality level of services is up to the mark or not (Glasby, 2012). Further,through this method it is possible for management to analyse its internal practices and it can be ensured whether they are benefiting patients in every possible manner or not. Major areas can be identified where where both the firms are not performing better after the process of merger.

Benchmarking: With the help of benchmarking it is possible for both the firms to know their actual performance in the market. Audit carried out by care quality commission is effective as the main role of this authority is to ensure whether organizations offer quality care to the patients or not (Martin and Henderson, 2001). Through continuous audit it is possible for firms to analyse the areas where they are lacking behind and improvement is necessarily required. Therefore, through this it is possible to evaluate the quality of the service along with innovation in service after considering the strategic option of merger (Ogden, 2012).

2.2 Evaluation of impact of merger for choice and competition

The impact of merger for choice and competition can be identified on the basis of provisions present in health and social care. The care Act introduced in 2014 focuses on the quality of treatment being rendered to the patients and it is necessary that service must be rendered above expectation level of the patients so that  they can live better life (Aguirre and  Alpern, 2014). Further, through merger choice increases as both the organizations named  Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch hospital NHS trust and Poole hospital NHS foundation can identify the best suitable options for its business so that patients can be served in unique manner (Grol and et. al., 2013). Moreover, choice is present in terms of adopting technological advanced tools, selecting source of finance etc. Therefore, options increases and it becomes easy for both the organization to take effective decisions so as to accomplish desired goals and objectives. On the other hand, merger as a strategic option is appropriate to deal with the challenge of competition in the market as both the hospitals can develop effective strategies for performing better and grabbing opportunities present in the environment (Faucheux, 2009). As per the provision of health and social care it is not possible for hospitals to indulge in any unethical practices to deal with competition in the market. So, due to this reason merger is appropriate to reduce the level of risk prevailing in the market (Ogden, 2012).

2.3 Impact on front-line staff of the rationalisations proposed in the merger

Merger as a strategic option can bring large number of change within the workplace and automatically influences all the major operations of the care home. Merger will have direct impact on the functions being carried out by the staff members as team members will increase who can better understand need and requirement of patients. Moreover, on daily basis front line staff can conduct more surgeries and operations for the beneficial of patients and in turn it can acts as development tool for both the companies (Stoyanova, 2014). Working on individual basis is difficult and by merging with another firm strength of business increase to meet well with need and requirement of patients. So, in this way functioning of front line staff along with team members will be affected positively (Burnes, 2003). On the other hand, frequency of visit of practitioners along with doctors will increase through merger as due to rise in number of employees they can easily attend more patients on daily basis which is beneficial for them in every possible manner. In short the service delivery becomes easy as staff members can easily deal with the situation of rise in demand for service and in turn best services can be rendered to the patients who are in need (Grol and et. al., 2013).

2.4 propose service responses to recent changes in HSC

The merger between PHFT and RBCHFT has been under the close monitoring of UK competition commission and office of fair trading. The evidence of the monitoring agencies suggest that the objective of the merger set out by the organizations does not seem to be achieved. The CC in UK have been previously monitoring the merger deal of corporate houses (Tuomilehto and et. al., 2001). But later it also started investigating the deal between health care organization for the same objective that proposed merger would not create monopoly and that it is ion the benefit of public. Since the introduction of CC into the NHS funded hospitals in the nations, the work of providers and commissioners are being exposed to the regulatory authorities.

The imposition of competition on health and social would have a positive impact on the service delivered to the patients. It is because the objective of CC was to strictly supervise and monitor the activities of the proposed merger (Ivey, Ivey and Zalaquett, 2013). Moreover it works like an independent authority and holds the right to stop an activity that seems to affect the competition in the market and consumer interest. The ultimate objective of CC is to promote competition and quality of service at affordable cost.

The decision by CC to stop proposed merger of two organization is aimed towards increasing competition among them by providing increased and improved service to the patients. The CC also mentions in its report that benefits of merger proposed by the organizations were not relevant. It also concludes that the merger did not provide any remedies for the lessening of competition.

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Task 3 Principles Of Change Management

3.1 Application of principles of change management

In relation with merger which took place between NHS trust and foundation trusts the principle of change management can be applied within the workplace so that both the companies can be positively affected due to this and in turn every individual can be encouraged to take part in major affairs of company. The first main principle of change management is linked with involving and agreeing support from staff members within the enterprise (Haruo, 2012). Therefore, it is required for healthcare organizations to involve every employee in the major activities so that change taking place due to merger can be implemented in better way and for the welfare of enterprise. Moreover, understanding the present position of the company is the next principle with the help of which it can be known why change is necessary and what are the benefits that can be derived by merging with another enterprise. Determining what organization wants to be is the next principle which highlights mission of the health care organizations and main objective of both the companies to be become leader in healthcare sector by providing remarkable services to patients.

Making plan for accomplishing mission is another principle where Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch hospital NHS trust and Poole hospital NHS foundation have made effective plans so that their performance in the market can be enhanced and they can easily deal with rise in competition level in the market (Kwasnicka and et. al., 2013). The last principle is associated with communicating, involving and facilitating involvement from people so that employees working in healthcare can be easily encouraged to take part in major affairs of the enterprise and it can benefit entire company in every possible manner. So these are some of the major principles linked with change management which can be easily applied in health and social care. By complying with all these principles it is possible for healthcare firms to better understand need and requirement of its patients and in turn firm can better understand need of the society.

3.2 Planning of changes in HSC

In order to plan change in HSC it is necessary to consider stakeholders of the enterprise so that change may positively influence the entire firm. It is well known fact that stakeholders play significant role in the organization and they are directly affected by the decisions taken by top management linked with any change for example at present Poole hospital NHS foundation and  Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch hospital NHS trust have merged with each other due to which all the operations of both the hospitals have altered and this directly influences stakeholders of the enterprise (Edwards and et. al., 2012).

Therefore, due to this specific reason business enterprise has to indulge all its stakeholders in the planning process as they can support healthcare firms to implement the change in better way and company can better respond to the need and requirement of patients. Apart, from this local authorities are also present in UK which provides support to healthcare firm in order to deal with change such as guidance is important in every stage of implementation. On the other hand commissioning group also assist companies to develop strategies so that they can perform better through merger and it can easily enhance performance of enterprise in the market. Further, at the time of planning it is necessary for both the firms to ensure that adequate resources are present for carrying out business operations as inadequacy can lead to decline in customer satisfaction which in turn is not favourable for both the healthcare firms (Kmietowicz, 2013). Therefore, in this way proper planning can support both the hospitals to carry out operations successfully and they can easily grab the opportunities such as financial one etc. Moreover, monitoring on continuous basis and in every stage is required so that it can be ensured that business operations are carried out in appropriate manner and areas can be determined where performance as per plan is not carried out by staff members.

3.3 Monitoring of recent changes in HSC

For performing better it is necessary to monitor all the changes taking place within the healthcare organization as through this the gap between actual and expected performance can be determined easily and corrective actions can be taken for the same (Pbert, 2013). CQC as an independent body supports healthcare organizations in monitoring the change and it can be known whether change is taking place as per plan or not (Glasby, 2012). The main reason behind monitoring of CQC is that high quality care can be rendered to the patients as per their expectation which plays significant role in the healthcare sector. The major role of monitoring is to protect and promote the interest of patients by ensuring that entire healthcare sector is working for the benefit of patients (Glasby, 2012). Therefore, Poole hospital NHS foundation and  Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch hospital NHS trust can easily monitor the recent changes due to merger through CQC inspection and can lead to favourable results.

CONCLUSION

The above study help in analysing the impact of change that would result with the merger of two health care organization. It listed down key demographic factors that supports the decision making in the merger deal. In addition to this, the impact of legal and regulatory forces on the proposed deal has also been explained. Furthermore the impact of changes on the internal and external environment of the organization has also been evaluated. Lastly principles of change management  has been explained which supports in the planning and monitoring of changes.

REFERENCES

• Burnes, B., 2003. Managing change and changing managers from ABC to XYZ. Journal of Management Development. 22(7).
• Edwards, R. and et. al., 2012. Optimisation of infection prevention and control in acute health care by use of behaviour change: a systematic review. The Lancet infectious diseases. 12(4).
• Glasby, J., 2012. Understanding health and social care. Policy Press.
• Grol, R. and et. al., 2013. Improving patient care: the implementation of change in health care. John Wiley & Sons.
• Haruo, N., 2012. Empirical Approach for Designing Universal Learning with Ubiquitetous ICTs; U-Learning for Enhancing the Right to Learn. Journal of Southeast Asian Education. 4(2).
• Ivey, A., Ivey, M. and Zalaquett, C., 2013. Intentional interviewing and counseling: Facilitating client development in a multicultural society. Cengage Learning.
• Kmietowicz, Z., 2013. Hospital merger is blocked because of failure to prove patient benefits. BMJ. 347.pp.
• Kwasnicka, D. and et. al., 2013. Does planning how to cope with anticipated barriers facilitate health-related behaviour change? A systematic review. Health psychology review. 7(2).
• MacDonald, G., 2005. Massage for the Hospital Patient and Medically Frail Client. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

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