H E A LT H Y O. R . I N WA L E S PAUL HARPER
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THE DEMAND FOR HEALTHCARE SERVICES in the UK continues to increase and the deficit between supply and demand proves to be economically costly and typically has a detrimental impact on factors such as waiting times, quality of care, NHS staff morale and patient satisfaction. From an O.R. perspective, healthcare systems are stochastic in nature; that is, they typically operate in an environment of uncertainty and variability, both at scale and within highly complex and connected networks. For example, imagine planning and managing the services in a large hospital, both operationally (on a day to day basis) and more strategically to plan ahead. Hundreds of patients may expect to pass through
IMPACT Š 2020 THE AUTHOR
different care pathways each day, each with varying resource needs required in an efficient and effective manner. Help is needed to forecast demand, schedule clinics, calculate the workforce size and skill-mix needed, and to roster staff. Furthermore decisions must be made on how best to schedule operating theatres and assign them to surgeons, how to reduce waiting times and cancellations within budgetary constraints, improve health outcomes, and make decisions on where to locate services geographically to ensure equitable coverage or the ability to reach patients within a critical time limit. But the hospital is just one part a much larger connected healthcare system. What happens here is
