Cuts and savings for the NHS

The NHS needs to save more than £4bn within two years yet the budget in England has trebled to more than £100bn. in the last few years , helping to pay for the 80% rise in managers over the period along with the many thousands of extra nurses a doctors and other staff

However, over the period same period productivity has fallen by over 3% a year on average.

But in reality this is just part of a wider efficiency drive. The NHS is aiming to make between £15bn to £20bn of savings by 2014.which equates to about 5% more productivity a year.

The following facts and analysis are from the Guardian


THE NHS IN NUMBERS FRPOM THE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER
The NHS budget in England will be £105bn for 2010-11
Future years' budgets have yet to be set, but at best the NHS can only hope for a very small rise
The head of the NHS has already told the health service to make up to £20bn of savings by 2011
The £4.35bn announced on Budget Day is just the first part of this efficiency drive
This means services such as diabetes clinics and minor surgery.

But for the push to make real savings requires hospitals - or at the very least wings of hospitals - to close.

This, of course, is extremely unpopular.

Another area which could be tackled is labour costs, which account for about half of the budget.

Reducing headcount significantly is not easy and so - after years of bumper pay rises for some - staff are now facing freezes in their salaries.

This will save about £3.5bn by 2014. But understandably the approach has proved unpopular with staff.

However, ministers are unlikely to stop there. As the Department of Health announced following the Budget, a saving of £555m is being aimed for by tackling staff sickness.

Sickness

The average NHS employee is absent through illness for more than 10 days a year, which is slightly higher than the public sector average and much higher than the private sector figure of 6.4 days.

The government aims to do this by giving staff quick access to physio and counsellors to tackle back injuries and stress which are both common problems in the health service.

But staff believe it will also lead to more and more pressure being put on front-line workers not to take days off when they are sick.

Kim Sunley, the Royal College of Nursing's senior employment adviser, says: "We have anecdotal evidence that trusts are adopting more draconian measures in tackling sickness. If anything staff already feel they can't take days off. It is a real concern."

While morale in the health service will probably not be of a great concern in the rest of the economy when people are losing their jobs, it will impact on how successful the NHS efficiency drive will be.

The savings are not being handed back to the Treasury. Instead, they will be ploughed back into the health service to ensure it can keep up with demand.

The ageing population means the pressure on the health service is rising steadily each year.

So the challenge is clear. The NHS pound has to go further - and if this does not happen services for everyone will suffer