The central message of my latest Annual Report is doing the right thing. That means acting collectively and making sure that every action and every opportunity that we have when we are interacting with our population is meaningful and makes a difference.

It’s about seeing the person behind the data point and listening to what matters to them.

It’s about being kind and compassionate to each other, recognising the pressures on our workforce. It’s about practising Realistic Medicine.

Doing the right thing weds scientific understanding and progress with the artistry of human understanding and relationship. It is a value-based approach to health and care and allows all of these elements to blend so that meaningful care – more likely to provide personal and technical value, less likely to lead to futility or regret – is realised. This approach, in turn, also leads to better use of resource and greater societal value.

The national Scan for Safety programme is an excellent example of delivering better value care. It can help boards:

• Optimise patient safety via enhanced traceability of medical devices related to recall processes, delivering personal value and reducing harm and waste
• Reduce administrative time across clinical procedures and day-to-day stock management – releasing more time to care (technical value)
• Record and link data across a patient journey to help unleash insights that can improve strategic planning and delivery (population value)
• Reduce a boards risk of ‘overstocking’, and in doing so, unleash opportunity to make significant financial savings
• In addition, its improved stock management and traceability can help reduce product wastage, helping boards become more sustainable (societal value).  

The adoption of Scan for Safety by boards over the next two years, will also help boards comply with essential requirements of new UK medical device regulations.

I’m delighted to see this national programme start its roll out and wish to thank everyone joining us on this journey, for your continued commitment.