Demand and Capacity Programme

Effectively managing demand and capacity is crucial for healthcare systems to meet the needs of their population. Balancing demand and capacity correctly provides an opportunity to enhance patient satisfaction through timely and high quality care while optimising the use of healthcare professionals and all NHS resources.

Arden & GEM delivers an innovative provider and system level Demand and capacity programme that integrates demand, activity, workforce, finance, bed stock and theatres to reveal opportunities through modelling and simulation software. Our multidisciplinary end to end package of support enables clients to discover, design, deliver and embed a robust demand and capacity tool that will help towards achieving national RTT targets, the NHS priorities and operational planning guidance targets - as well as applying national frameworks such as GIRFT for theatre utilisation, the ‘5 Rights’ and ‘6 Steps’ in workforce planning and the ‘right patient, in the right bed, receiving the right care, at the right time’ toolkit for bed allocation.

Our expert finance, analytical and productivity leads can support the implementation of successful demand and capacity planning at a provider, collaborative and system level. We support the achievement of the targets set in the NHS Operational Planning Guidance through increasing productivity and helping to support system flow.

Our Demand and Capacity Programme provides a range of planning solutions that can meet your individual requirements. Arden & GEM’s diverse service portfolio also offers a range of additional implementation support aligned to provider and system need. This includes:

• Clarity on current demand and operational capacity
• Engagement and capacity building with clinical and operational teams
• Forecast future demand using demographic and non-demographic data
• System modelling and simulation techniques to assess risk prior to implementing change
• Detailed scenario planning to model variables to influence planning and changes to models of delivery
• Compliance audits, process mapping and identification of constraints
• Performance monitoring and action planning
• Standardisation of processes
• Stakeholder and end user training
• Providing an evidence base for investment cases and annual planning cycles
• Improvements to integrated working at provider and system level
• Ongoing support to evaluate outputs, quantify expected benefits, identify lessons learnt and revisit benchmarking data.