Last year, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust launched a Trustwide review of operational effectiveness and efficiency, spanning both clinical and non-clinical services. This Trustwide programme is known as Delivering Excellence and is led by the Chief Executive with close support from the executive team.

The programme aims to improve patient care and ensure we are making the best possible use of all our resources. Operational improvements are already increasing efficiency and benefiting patients, for example, where appropriate we have reduced the time that patients spend in hospital. The financial savings that result from the programme, for example as a result of improved procurement processes and contract renegotiation, are being reinvested in service improvements.

To help us achieve the ambitious programme we have set ourselves, we are using some consultancy support from McKinsey to support our inhouse teams. This is primarily to assist with ‘process redesign’ and ‘supply change management’, areas where McKinsey have particular expertise, as well as to provide training that will ensure our staff have the necessary skills to lead this work in future. McKinsey were selected following a competitive tendering process.

McKinsey staff have no executive authority and it is completely misleading to suggest that they are in control of any of this work. The Trust chose to launch the Delivering Excellence programme – and this has not been done in response to any external request. We are doing this because we believe it is right for the organisation and will bring direct benefits to our patients.