Harnessing a clinician-led governance model to overcome healthcare tribalism and drive innovation: a case study of Northumbria NHS Foundation Trust.

Purpose: Healthcare tribalism refers to the phenomenon through which different groups in a healthcare setting strictly adhere to their profession-based silo, within which they exhibit stereotypical behaviours. In turn, this can lead to deleterious downstream effects upon productivity and care delivered to patients. This study highlights a clinician-led governance model, implemented at a National Health Service (NHS) trust, to investigate whether it successfully overcame tribalism and helped drive innovation.

Addressing health inequalities by using Structural Funds. A question of opportunities.

Making up a third of the EU budget, Structural and Investment Funds can provide important opportunities for investing in policies that tackle inequalities in health. This article looks back and forward at the 2007-2013 and 2014-2020 financial periods in an attempt to inform the development of health equity as a strand of policy intervention under regional development. It combines evidence from health projects funded through Structural Funds and a document analyses that locates interventions for health equity under the new regulations.

European hospital reforms in times of crisis: aligning cost containment needs with plans for structural redesign?

Hospitals have become a focal point for health care reform strategies in many European countries during the current financial crisis. It has been called for both, short-term reforms to reduce costs and long-term changes to improve the performance in the long run. On the basis of a literature and document analysis this study analyses how EU member states align short-term and long-term pressures for hospital reforms in times of the financial crisis and assesses the EU's influence on the national reform agenda.

Keeping capital supple for future flexibility.

In a follow-up to a paper published in Health Estate Journal in February, Capitalising in the long term, Bernd Rechel, Stephen Wright, Barrie Dowdeswell, Nigel Edwards, and Martin McKee report on the findings of a research project into the financing, design and building of innovative European hospitals. One of the key conclusions was the need to build into new healthcare facilities, from the outset, sufficient flexibility to cater for fast-changing care patterns and evolving technologies.

Capitalising in the long term.

Bernd Rechel, Stephen Wright, Nigel Edwards, Barrie Dowdeswell and Martin McKee report on an international study on improving the effectiveness of health capital investment which analyses innovative European capital projects and examines the key issues that arise. The study, by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and the European Health Property Network/European Centre for Health Assets & Architecture, suggests that hospital design that takes into account facility management costs results in significant efficiency gains.