De-sludging healthcare systems

Making it easier to access to primary care services is a priority for patients across the UK. Earlier this year, the UK government announced a Primary Care Recovery Plan for England.123 The plan proposes new policies to help remove some of the barriers patients encounter when accessing healthcare and reduce the bureaucratic burden on primary care staff by, for example, making it easier to book a GP appointment and supporting pharmacists to treat infections like urinary tract infections (UTIs). This announcement suggests that NHS leaders may have started thinking in terms of “sludge,” a concept recently developed by behavioural economists. The strategy provides a template for clinicians elsewhere to begin “de-sludging” our health systems.Richard Thaler, an economist and professor of behavioural science, coined the term “sludge” in 2018, building on his popular idea of “nudge.”4 If nudges make it easier for citizens to access helpful services (like retirement savings or…
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