Could Toyota save the NHS?

Two recipes for fixing the NHS have been on offer in the media recently. Sir Gerry Robinson’s attempt to galvanise Rotherham General Hospital was rather like a reality TV show, and his idea that one brilliant manager can get the service into shape is dangerous and deluded.

Far more encouraging was Peter Day’s In Business programme on Radio 4, which asked the seemingly unlikely question of whether Toyota’s production principles could be applied to healthcare. Compared with Western systems, Toyota’s approach is tortoise versus hare: rather than seeking efficiency by speeding up individual activities, it focuses on improving the flow throughout the whole system, concentrating rigorously on customer demand. The result: a race-winning combination of higher quality and lower cost.

This system flies in the face of the current policy of fragmenting the NHS and hiving out activities to private companies. But it demonstrates that large size is no barrier to efficiency. Toyota, it should be noted, has remained profitable or closed a plant for many years, unlike Ford.