Sustainable Development in the National Health Service (NHS)

The views and values of NHS leaders

Tom Ling, Janice S. Pedersen, Samuel Drabble, Claire Celia, Laura Brereton, Christine Tiefensee

ResearchPublished Jan 31, 2012

This report presents National Health Service (NHS) leaders' views of priorities and approaches regarding sustainable development in the NHS. It was produced in close collaboration with the United Kingdom (UK) NHS Sustainable Development Unit (SDU), and it represents the first systematic picture of leadership views in the NHS. It also provides a commentary on ways forward. Analysis draws on results of a survey of 172 leaders of NHS organisations (primarily chief executives), 12 follow-up interviews, interviews with the SDU, and additional data and literature searches. A major conclusion is that almost all leaders consider sustainable development to be important for the NHS and that a focus on sustainability can most likely be aligned with delivering other corporate goals. Aligned incentives at all organisational levels and support for diversity are considered necessary to achieve sustainability, as well as relevant performance metrics. The main barrier is organisational culture.

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Ling, Tom, Janice S. Pedersen, Samuel Drabble, Claire Celia, Laura Brereton, and Christine Tiefensee, Sustainable Development in the National Health Service (NHS): The views and values of NHS leaders. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2012. https://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR1210.html.
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The research described in this document was prepared for the UK National Health Service (NHS) Sustainable Development Unit (SDU) and conducted by RAND Europe.

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