NHS ‘could save £5bn a year’ with simple reforms

Increasing staff efficiency in hospitals by just 1 per cent could also represent around £400m in savings to the NHS a year, the report states.

Making sure every hospital pays the best price for medicines and supplies could also save money that can be reinvested in frontline care, chairman of the NHS procurement and efficiency board Lord Carter said.

NHS savings

Lord Carter was asked to produce a report into how up to £2bn in procurement efficiency savings can be made to improve the health service’s financial situation.

Among his findings was a hospital that was using the soluble version of a steroid and paying £1.50 per tablet, when it could have been paying 2p for the solid version. By saving the soluble version only for children and patients who have trouble swallowing, it is saving £40,000 a year.

Lord Carter also found that hip operations are costing some parts of the NHS more than double the amount they should.

Often the hips used do not last as long as less expensive versions, meaning patients need more replacements and follow-up care, costing the NHS up to £17m extra every year.

NHS staff

He has spent the last year working with 22 leading hospitals to see how the NHS could save money. One hospital, which has 23 operating theatres, improved the way it tracks the products used during surgery and saved £230,000 in the first year, he said.

His report found that by making better use of staff, using medicines more effectively and getting better value from the huge number of products the NHS buys, it could save up to £5bn a year by 2020.

Reducing the number of product lines of everyday consumables that the NHS uses from more than 500,000 to fewer than 10,000 and being better at procurement could save up to £1bn in five years, he said.

The report said the size of the NHS means that by doing several small things better, huge savings are possible.

He found another hospital could save up to £750,000 a year by improving the way it deals with staff rosters, annual leave and sickness, flexible working and making the most of staff hours, and recoup the £10,000 a month it was losing due to people claiming too much annual leave.