Energy Topics:
Supported by
For more information about this website and it's supporters, visit the About us section.
NHS 2050
Learn all about the NHS's sustainability programme
NHS Productivity less bureaucracy, more sustainability
The Office of National Statistics has released figures showing that between 1995 and 2008 the amount spent on healthcare rose by 75%, or an average 4.4% a year, but the amount of healthcare provided rose by only 69%, or 4.1% a year.
This means that the productivity of publicly funded healthcare fell by an average 0.3% every year from 1995 to 2008.
As such, the NHS is getting flak from all sides, that it is extremely inefficient and that the money invested (which has increased drastically over the last decade) has been lost in bureaucracy and red tape. And to a certain extent, it has.
When you have an installation that is as huge as the NHS, you are always going to have a fair amount of waste, and the Department of Health’s assertion that 4.35billion worth of cuts will be made over the next two years seems at first to be reasonable, but it is where these cuts are to be made that causes concern. It has already been suggested, for example, that the number of beds should be reduced. This is, to put it mildly, folly.
To become more efficient, more sustainable, the NHS has to stop looking at itself as a business. It isn’t. It is a huge public service that millions of people rely on. People want to see more doctors and nurses, and fewer managers, clinicians and so on. It should not be looking to streamline these areas in order to cut costs, but look at the more obvious areas such as waste, transport, IT and other areas where recycling and the use of more sustainable materials will, over time develop the savings and, more importantly maintain them, too.
When anybody thinks of sustainable methods and materials, the alarm bells immediately start ringing. This is a trend that needs addressing and reversing, otherwise the future NHS will see cuts in all the wrong areas, and result in a service that doesn’t serve the public, at all.
Comments
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
5 responses to “NHS Productivity less bureaucracy, more sustainability”
I couldn’t agree more! From patient’s perspective the NHS certainly doesn’t need to cut hospital beds or others similar services. There aren’t enough as it is…
When did Foundation Trusts stop being businesses? Has anyone told Monitor? What planet are you on, it sounds nicer than this one.
On a more serious note, the HSJ recently published analysis showing a strong correlation between Trusts that have invested in more management resource and those with better results.
People do want to see fewer managers, because that’s what the tabloids and shallower politicians encourage them to want. In reality you can’t run large complex organisations (or am I supposed to call them “installations” now?) without adequate numbers of competent managers. Historically, hospitals have lacked both the quality and quantity of managers. Address that, and it allows the doctors to get on with doctoring…
Hang on, I think I’ve got it now. You’re deliberately posting ill-informed naive statements on this site to provoke us into responses, and build readership…damn, it’s working too…
I accept your points, Tony; you are quite right that competent managers are required to run an organisation the size of the NHS. I have had plenty of conversations to argue however that what people want in their NHS isn’t the vast numbers of them for the sake of it, clogging up the funding which could be better spent elsewhere.
And as for provoking debate, well…
Leave a Reply
Latest comment
UK recycling industry approves of new government registrar for stolen mobiles
[...] UK recycling industry approves of new government registrar for stolen mobiles « NHS Sustainabi... [...]
Read article »
“The NHS has to stop looking at itself as a business”
Naive. Very, very naive.