News / England tops productivity table

Activity and staff productivity are higher in England than in any of the three devolved nations, according to a report by The Nuffield Trust.

The report, looking at the funding and performance of the health service in each of the four countries before and after devolution, found that NHS England spent less and had fewer doctors, nurses and managers per head of population but made better use of resources.

Following protests from the Scottish government, the trust acknowledged that some of the statistics relating to Scotland’s hospital medical and dental staff were incorrect. This data had been obtained from the Office for National Statistics.

While Scotland’s position on crude productivity relative to other devolved nations had changed, there was no change compared with England – inpatient admissions, outpatient appointments and day cases per hospital medical and dental staff were lower in Scotland.

The charity said its findings raised questions about the efficiency of care across the devolved nations. Nuffield Trust director Jennifer Dixon said while some of the differences reflected historical funding, others were due to local policies, particularly the emphasis in England on performance management, public reporting of performance and financial incentives.

‘While this research suggests that efficiencies can be made in health services throughout the UK, the marked differences in crude productivity of staff in the three devolved nations relative to England raise challenging questions,’ she added.

NHS Confederation policy director Nigel Edwards said each of the four countries had their strengths and weaknesses. ‘It will take considerable time, and more data, before it is possible to draw robust conclusions about what works best in each of the UK’s constituent nations,’ he added.