NHS failing to deliver value

The NHS is not delivering value for money, according to the former programme director for financial reform at the Department of Health.

Bob Dredge said that despite recent investment, productivity and value for money had actually been reduced.

Speaking on last night’s Panorama programme on BBC One, Mr Dredge said that too much was spent on wages. He told the programme: “It’s a hard thing to say, but probably were I running the show, I wouldn’t have been as generous with pay, I’d have been more … rigorous on output and productivity.”

Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt responded by blaming a previous “culture of overspending” for current problems of under-productivity.

Despite an increase in spending on the NHS and a promised ?94 billion over the next two years, the service has come under increasing attack recently for its budgeting from opposition parties and pressure groups.

Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley told Jonathan Dimbleby on his ITV1 programme that “there is a financial crisis and [the government doesn’t] know how to cope with it”.

In a bid to encourage better efficiency, Ms Hewitt called on NHS trusts to use their beds more effectively, claiming that ?78 million could be saved annually by doing so.

Allegations of NHS inefficiency come after recent announcements of 4,000 job losses in the service and an expected deficit of nearly ?800 million.

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