News / Efficiency progress slow

The NHS in England showed few signs of progress in 2009/10 in key areas required to meet the £20bn efficiency challenge, according to an Audit Commission briefing.

More for less 2009/10 said there had been no identifiable changes in past trends, despite efforts to switch care away from hospital and into community settings.

Acute and specialist trust income grew at nearly 7% a year, most rapidly in non-tariff areas. Primary care trusts invested heavily in community services, with a further 12% increase in 2009/10 on top of a 13% rise in 2008/09, but nationally there was no identifiable shift to providing more cost-effective care outside hospitals – a crucial element of the QIPP (quality, innovation, productivity and prevention) programme.

Andy McKeon, the commission’s managing director of health, said there were opportunities to make savings, but the efficiency challenge remained a daunting task.

'It takes time to turn the tanker, but there was little sign of these changes beginning to happen in 2009/10.

‘The reassuring message is that there are still big savings to be made. But to do so, commissioners and providers must look differently at how they manage and finance an evolving NHS.'

The briefing was published as the National Audit Office said NHS productivity had declined by an average of 0.2% a year since 2000, while hospital productivity had dropped by about 1.4% a year.

Management of NHS hospital productivity said that if all hospitals performed at top 25% level on staff costs, emergency admissions, estate use and bed management, the NHS could save about £1.6bn a year.