Health secretary, Jeremy Hunt has told the NHS that in order to save £10bn the service must undertake a ‘fundamental rethink’, which involves using fewer temporary staff, reducing drug errors and selling off old buildings.
Health secretary says NHS must save £10bn a year
The health secretary believes this must be done in order to have a financial retainer for unprecedented demand for care. This news arrives following the NAO’s report which describes how the Better Care Fund was ruined by government interference and a crushing demand for healthcare, which left many hospitals in deficit.
Using fewer management consultants would cut the £500m annual bill for them, while selling off some of the NHS’s £7.5bn worth of surplus land and buildings, of which if London’s extra NHS properties alone were sold the NHS would save £1.5bn.
In 2021, NHS England is expected to face a £30bn hole in it’s budget as a direct result of increasingly high demands for care and years of tight budgets. On Thursday, Hunt will tell an audience of NHS bosses at the King’s Fund thinktank that they must make upto £10bn annually in new efficiency savings by then in order to close that gap.
Other avenues to save are also being examined, such as IT-led efficiencies should increase as they decrease the amount of paid man power needed. In addition to this, reducong avoidable harm could save the NHS up to £2.5bn a year, and minimising mistakes in prescribing medication could save £551m annually. Hunt will also flag up the £150m that is wasted on unused drugs. Taking these steps will lead to establishing a much more financially efficient NHS with ideally no £30bn gap come 2021.
