With the NHS getting more staff and money for little measurable improvement in patient care, there are concerns that the health service has a productivity problem. Does it, asks Richard Vize and, if so, why?
Health service productivity matters for the whole economy. Healthcare spending, both governmental and non-governmental, consumed 11.3% of gross domestic product in 2022, compared with 6.8% in 1997.1 NHS effectiveness has a big impact on the overall productivity of public services, perceptions of value for money for taxpayers, and the ability of the NHS to help people to be fit for work.
In evidence to the health select committee in November, NHS England chief executive Amanda Prichard dismissed current productivity measures as “a fairly blunt tool” and said there was a “misunderstanding” about NHS productivity, because the figures do not fully reflect activity such as critical care, diagnostics, community services, and virtual wards, or quality improvements such as the r
Delivering the NHS workforce plan is a massive organisational challenge
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England is sleepwalking towards a two-tier health system | Richard Vize
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Opinion: Ministerial errors have undermined the UK’s pandemic response
By Richard Vize on 29/01/2021
There is little evidence that the prime minister and those around him understand the scale of their failures or their culpability for what has unfolded, Vize argues. Credit: Pippa Fowles / No 10 Downing Street/Flickr
The latest Whitehall Monitor report reveals just how badly ministers have handled the COVID-19 crisis, failing in key areas such as procurement and working with local authorities, argues Richard Vize
The annual analysis of Whitehall by think tank the Institute for Government reveals how the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been repeatedly undermined by avoidable ministerial failures.
Roughly one in 11 clinical posts are vacant, and it would hardly be a surprise to see many staff rush for the retirement door once the worst of the pandemic is behind us. The NHS can’t solve the problem without long-term certainty over funding for staff.
Around 140,000 patients in England have been waiting more than a year for surgeries such as a hip replacements, up a hundredfold from a year ago. With the whole system beset by delays long before we had even heard of coronavirus, the lack of spare capacity means it will take years to help many patients.