Always room for efficiency savings, but NHS still facing uncertain period

Responding to reports that efficiency targets in the NHS will be doubled as part of the Chancellor’s Spring Statement on Wednesday, Matthew Taylor chief executive of the NHS Confederation said:

“NHS leaders understand the need to have stretching savings targets given the extra investment going into the NHS and strain on public finances. They were delivering them before the pandemic and will do so again. But this is a very ambitious target and a number of factors will need to fall into place for it to be achieved. 

“While there is always room for improvement and scope for increased efficiency savings, the NHS is still facing an uncertain period with the threat from Covid far from over. Hospitals up and down the country are operating with reduced capacity due to the need to separate out the care provided to COVID patients and those without COVID-19. This continues to leave the NHS with less capacity to treat non-Covid patients and therefore to improve efficiencies. 

“Efficiency is strongly linked to capacity and the NHS is operating at well over the occupancy levels it would want to. You can’t run a highly efficient service with bed occupancy levels at such a continued high level. We are paying the price for the low bed base we have in the NHS compared to other countries such as Germany. The lowest funding increases for a decade in the 2010s have further compounded this.

“We are also facing much higher levels of inflation than anyone was expecting and this will in effect reduce the purchasing power of the NHS. Combine this with the 110,000 staff vacancies we have in the NHS and it’s clear that asking for more demanding efficiency targets is highly ambitious.”