NHS trusts have expressed support for the Getting It Right First Time programme (GIRFT), but argue the work is only the first step to tackling the problem of unwarranted variation.

A new report by NHS Providers, The Getting It Right First Time programme: early views from the provider sector, explores trusts’ perspectives on the programme, and sets out recommendations for trusts and NHS national bodies to help ensure the programme sets out realistic goals to improve efficiencies, deliver better patient care and reduce variation across clinical specialties. 

Trusts argue for caution over the programme’s ambition to save £1.4bn a year by 2020/21 (a quarter of the NHS’ financial gap). The report urges the NHS national bodies to set realistic savings targets and timescales which take into account wider pressures in the system, including financial and workforce difficulties which may hamper efforts to reduce variation.

The report urges the NHS national bodies to set realistic savings targets and timescales which take into account wider pressures in the system, including financial and workforce difficulties which may hamper efforts to reduce variation.

NHS Trusts are continuing to deliver significant productivity improvements. This report argues that the GIRFT programme should support these efforts rather than being used as a regulatory tool to monitor the scale and pace of savings being delivered.  

The report has been informed by senior trust leaders’ feedback about their experience so far working with the programme and its national leadership team.

It is based on telephone interviews with 11 senior clinical, operational and financial staff and written views from six trusts. A roundtable of 25 trusts was conducted with NHS Improvement attended by board-level representatives from across acute, specialist, mental health and community trusts.

Read The Getting It Right First Time programme: early views from the provider sector online

Read Cassandra Cameron writes  on why the GIRFT programme must set out to sustain a ‘quality first’ agenda in the long term.