Una O'Brien
Permanent Secretary of the Department of Health
How did you tackle the biggest challenges facing your organisation in 2014?
Winter comes every year, and this year in the NHS we are even more focussed on sustaining delivery and performance, knowing the increasing need in the population. We started planning for winter in April, which gives you an idea of the intense effort involved by DH and our arm’s-length body partners. We’ve made sure there is a really tight grip on the system: data is collected daily from November, which allows DH and our ALBs to respond very rapidly when there are problems. There is a strong focus on increasing the capacity outside of hospitals to ease the pressures on A&E, including in some areas seven-day GP opening and social care assessments. We’re also working hard to make sure that people get their flu jabs to avoid unnecessary admissions. Of course, we’ll see over the next few months how effective our planning has been, but I am proud of the way DH is leading the collaboration across the health and care system.
Assisting with the ebola crisis in West Africa and making sure that we are prepared in the UK for any potential case has tested our ability to respond quickly to a fast-changing situation. Dame Sally Davies and Felicity Harvey’s teams in DH have done truly exceptional work with colleagues in Public Health England, the NHS and DfID. The first NHS volunteers have now travelled to West Africa to help the international effort to tackle the disease, and colleagues from Public Health England have been there for some months. Dame Sally and I meet regularly with Mark Lowcock and Chris Whitty at DfID to keep a grip on progress, and we are working closely with the MoD and FCO. Whilst the scale of the challenge should not be understated, it has been heartening to see different parts of government and the health system work so closely together.
What are your department’s top priorities in the last months before the general election?
Ministers’ delivery commitments, including increasing the numbers of health visitors and improving access to psychological therapy. At the same time, we are looking to the future of the health and care system, and preparing for the next spending review. There is no shortage of work to be done. Planning for winter may have begun months ago, but it is over the course of the next few months that DH will be under immense scrutiny to make sure that NHS delivery stays on course.
What’s your favourite Christmas treat? And what makes you say: ‘Bah, humbug!’?
As I was a Christmas baby, it’s always a treat to have a double celebration. As for ‘bah, humbug’: the massive overload of sugar and alcohol!