The role of soft systems methodology in healthcare policy provision and decision support

Developing and implementing policy at governmental level implies dealing with complexity and hence understanding the multi-faceted nature of the domain in question. This paper offers a candidate framework for such policy analysis and implementation. A key feature of the framework is the adoption of soft systems methodology (SSM). The approach is illustrated in the context of a healthcare application; namely the introduction by the UK National Health Service of a National Service Framework for delivering services to diabetic patients. This application demonstrates the power of SSM in providing a rigorous and logical approach to determining the attributes, criteria and cost elements of the system that can then be fed into a more formal model to yield information as to cost effectiveness.