£20 billion of savings in the NHS might not be enough
New Home Secretary Andrew Lansley last week hinted that the NHS may have to make more savings than have been planned for and that an efficiency drive is ‘necessary’. In an Radio 4 interview, he said the health service and may have to improve productivity beyond the £20billion figure being planned for.
The NHS had been working on the expectation that it should make £20bn of efficiency savings by 2014. But Mr Lansley said: “That implied something like three to three-and-a-half percent, probably about three percent efficiency savings each year in the NHS.
“Of course we may need to do that. And we may need to do more because we have increases in demand in the NHS and a need to improve the outcomes.”
The new health secretary said this would help the NHS keep pace with rising demands from the ageing population.