News / Auditor highlights heart savings

NHS SCOTLAND COULD save £4m a year by making cardiology services more efficient, according to an Audit Scotland report.

Cardiology services said the local NHS had made good progress inreducing the numbers affected by heart disease, helping sufferers live longer and reducing waiting times. However, heart disease kills more than 8,000 people a year, it said, and is Scotland’s second greatest cause of death.

The auditors said NHS Scotland spends at least £146m on hospital cardiology services – though it believes this is a significant underestimate because of limited cost information.

It added that the figure does not include GP or community services. At least £4.4m could be saved a year, with the greatest saving (£1.6m) made by ensuring patients attend outpatient appointments.

The service could save 4,700 bed days (£1.5m a year) by reducing lengths of stay for heart patients and treating more patients as day cases. Greater use of cheaper and less invasive diagnostic tests – CT scanning rather than angiography, for example – would save £800,000. And, while acknowledging that NHS National Procurement has
achieved considerable savings on three cardiology drug and equipment contracts, the auditors said another £500,000 a year could be saved by prescribing cheaper  statins in the community.

Auditor general Robert Black said efforts to prevent heart disease must continue. ‘The NHS needs to ensure services meet patients’ needs as efficiently as possible. It
should make sure it has consistent and accurate information about cardiology services so that local areas can monitor their performance, compare services and identify areas to improve services and save money,’ he said.