A deeper look at failure demand in healthcare

A deeper look at failure demand in healthcare

How might analysts spot failure demand in data - and what does it mean for value, equity and improvement?

Following the Strategy Unit’s 'Insights' webinar on failure demand in healthcare, this Huddle offers a chance to take the conversation further - with a more analyst-focused and interactive look at what failure demand might actually look like in our data.

Failure demand is the work created when people’s needs are not met effectively first time. It can show up as repeated contacts, avoidable follow-up activity, or demand generated by delays and fragmented care - yet it often appears in our systems and datasets as if it were productive output.

In this session I'll be joined by Alison Turner, Head of Knowledge Mobilisation at the Strategy Unit, who will introduce the key ideas, share an emerging typology of failure demand, and invite participants to think about how analysts might begin to spot and explore failure demand in their own settings. Along the way, the session will consider the hidden costs for patients, carers and staff, and ask what it would mean to bring this perspective more explicitly into everyday analytical work.

This will be a reflective and participative session, designed to help attendees test ideas, connect them to their own experience, and think about where this work could go next.

Who is this Huddle for?

This Huddle will be particularly relevant to:

• analysts and data professionals working in health and care
• people interested in demand, productivity, performance or service improvement
• those curious about how analytical work can better surface unmet need and avoidable activity
• managers, improvement leads and decision-makers interested in the implications for planning and service design

What attendees will learn

• what failure demand is, where the concept comes from, and why it matters now
• how an emerging typology can help distinguish different kinds of avoidable or system-generated work
• how failure demand might appear in routine datasets, even when it is not directly labelled
• what data might help surface failure demand, and what may be missing
• how greater awareness of failure demand could be built into everyday analytical practice

How to join

📅 Thursday 11 June
🕚 11:00–12:00
📍 Join via your usual Teams link or Eventbrite

N.B. Join this Huddle via the Eventbrite link from this invitation or the normal MS Teams Link

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