Meeting the NHS productivity challenge

The long-awaited review on productivity in NHS hospitals,1 by Lord Carter, has highlighted ‘unwarranted variation’ in running costs, sickness absence, infection rates and prices paid for supplies and services. The efficiency expert has spent 18 months visiting hospitals across the country and reviewing productivity to ensure the NHS ‘gets the best value from its £102 billion annual budget’. Implementing the recommendations could help end variations in quality of care and finances that cost the NHS billions, Lord Carter has advised Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, in his final report. 

As part of the review, a ‘model hospital’ has been developed which will advise NHS Trusts on the most efficient allocation of resources and allows hospitals to measure performance against other Trusts. It is claimed that following the model hospital examples could save hospitals £5 billion a year by 2020 to 2021 and put an end to the variations the review uncovered across the NHS, including:

As well as reviewing hospitals across England, Lord Carter’s review looked at healthcare systems abroad, including in the US, Germany, Australia, Italy and France. Lord Carter said: “My experience of the NHS and hospitals internationally is that high quality patient care and sound financial management go hand in hand. To improve the quality of care hospitals must grasp resources more effectively, especially staff, which account for more than 60 pence of every pound hospitals spend.