The mythbuster: The power of stories (HSJ, 12 October 2026)

Summary

The NHS’s productivity problem is much bigger than top-down analysis suggests, with real patient journeys revealing how poorly designed processes can waste vast amounts of staff time and resources, writes Steve Black in this HSJ opinion piece. He says that analysing the patient journeys to identify the waste and chaos could drive far more improvement than the top-down analysis might suggest. And it could make the needed improvements far more concrete and convincing for the staff who need to implement them and far more convincing for the patients who need to support them.