Help us write the UK’s first peri-operative care ‘Green Paper’
In February, the Centre for Perioperative Care (CPOC), of which the Association of
Anaesthetists is a founding member, began work on the UK’s first ever peri-operative
care Green Paper. We are writing this with the intention of influencing national policy on
peri-operative care and NHS funding.
What is a Green Paper?
For readers who may not be aware, a Green Paper is a
consultation document produced by governments, pressure
groups or other agencies to provoke discussion and draw
stakeholders together around clear priorities for change and a
future direction of travel. Exploratory in nature, they are typically
produced at the start of a government’s interest in a specific
policy area and lay out formative proposals for transformational
change.
Our main themes
Following feedback from across Government departments
(including H.M. Treasury and the Department of Health and
Social Care) and health and care leaders, CPOC is producing a
Green Paper on peri-operative care with five main themes.
First, as this is a political document at its heart, we’re marshalling
our strongest arguments for why the NHS across the UK and
the UK Government should prioritise peri-operative care. This
involves testing messages with key stakeholder groups, including
patients, to find out which arguments resonate the most with
specific audiences. We currently have an ‘arguments’ discussion
paper out for consultation where stakeholders can help us get
our messaging right. Please
visit our project webpage to access
the paper and give us your feedback [1].
Second, we’ll be producing a very short ‘state of the nation’ audit,
looking at where we are now when it comes to peri-operative
care with respect to service provision as well as attitudes towards
peri-operative care amongst NHS leaders and the public; this is
required for, among other things, benchmarking purposes.
Third, we’ll be looking at the top challenges and opportunities
facing this agenda in the short- to medium term, and
determining priorities to meet or tackle them. As readers will
be aware this is a very broad topic area, and we’re looking to
provide more clarity, direction and focus to this agenda at a national level, grounded in extensive consultation with health
and care staff and patients about what matters most.
Fourth, we’ll be looking at the long-term future of surgery, setting
out ‘first thoughts’ for how peri-operative care might change
radically over the next 25 years.
Finally, we’ll be laying out our proposal for the upcoming 2021
Spending Review. In this section, we will identify the top 3-5
peri-operative priorities for future funding, cost up the proposal,
and submit it to H.M. Treasury. We’ll be looking for help from
peri-operative leaders to determine what, from so many potential
funding needs, those top priorities should be.
Get involved
The heart of a Green Paper is consultation and sector
involvement. We would like to thank all the Association members
who have so far fed into this work and helped to shape it by
coming along to our events, taking our surveys, giving an
interview, or championing this piece of work to your networks.
In total our project has engaged with hundreds of people
working at different points in the peri-operative pathway, from
allied health professionals and public health consultants based
in the community, GPs and nurses in primary care, to surgeons,
anaesthetists, and the wider secondary care team. And of
course, we’ve been regularly consulting patients, politicians, and
policymakers too.
If you would like to help us develop our Green Paper and
Spending Review proposal please get in touch with us by
emailing [email protected], and visit our project
website to find out about our latest news and events.
Lisa Plotkin
Centre for Perioperative Care Policy Manager
References
- Centre for Perioperative Care. Delivering patient-centred care: a perioperative
care green paper, 2021. https://cpoc.org.uk/about-cpoc/cpoc-policy
(accessed 14/4/2021).