NHS trusts can save 2bn pounds a year

The government claims that by making changes to become more efficient, the NHS could save 2 billion pounds each year.

A report by the Department of Health revealed that a number of NHS trusts could make major savings by making alterations to the way they deal with emergency admissions and by reducing the length of time patients stay.

The government proposes implementing a number of ‘performance indicators’ to assist trusts with making savings and how to improve efficiency.

Health minister Andy Burnham, said that the new proposals are not about “cutting corners” but were instead about enabling trusts to focus on improving services.

“Productivity is about working smarter, not harder and improved efficiency will deliver both better patient care and better value to the taxpayer,” he comments.

According to the report, increasing the number of day-only cases can save as much as 16 million pounds and reducing unnecessary surgical procedures could save an additional 73 million pounds.

Earlier in the month, the Department of Health announced that it was launching projects to identify how GPs and nurses can perform operations, such as varicose vein and hernia repairs, at doctors’ surgeries, rather than at hospitals in order to save money for the NHS.