NIHR Signal Wider stakeholder involvement could overcome resistance to modernising healthcare services

Among principles that can help when decommissioning out-dated, unsafe or poor value services are clear leadership and transparency about the reason for change with patients, clinicians and local communities.

Modernising healthcare often involves reducing, replacing and removing services. This is called decommissioning and the task varies with the local context.

Decommissioning health care: identifying best practice through primary and secondary research a prospective mixed-methods study

This NIHR study aims to formulate theoretically grounded, evidence-informed guidance to support best practice in effective decommissioning of NHS services. It finds that there is a lack of robust evidence to guide decommissioning, but among experts there is a high level of consensus for three good-practice principles: establish a strong leadership team, engage clinical leaders from an early stage and establish a clear rationale for change.