MPs question where NHS savings go

Topics covered: Ridouts professional advice

MPs say there is a lack of clarity over where saved money goes in the NHS.

The NHS is in the middle of an efficiency drive with savings expected to be reinvested in front-line care and making services more productive. More than £10bn has been saved in the first two years with another £4bn forecast in 2013-14. However, the Health Select Committee said there was little evidence that this money had been used wisely.

The group said the plan had been to alter the way services were delivered to make the NHS sustainable in the long-term, but it said that, to date, much of the savings had come from measures such as pay freezes and cutting funding to hospitals.

Committee chairman Stephen Dorrell said, “We have not seen the transformation of care on the scale which is needed to meet demand and improve care quality. The NHS budget is static and the social care budget is falling. In these circumstances, the successful integration of high-quality health and care services represents a substantial and growing challenge.” He said it was now important to ring-fence the social care budget and he also wanted to see councils getting more involved in planning care through their health and well-being boards, as that would make joined-up care more likely.

According to the Committee, the pressures on the NHS and social care system were now greater than they were a few years ago.

NHS England chief executive Sir David Nicholson, said he wanted to see a “radical” transformation, with care being centralised in major hospitals and more integrated services provided in the community between GPs, nurses and social care.

Professor John Appleby, of the King’s Fund think tank said, “in the short-term, finances are tightening significantly with a growing number of hospitals now in deficit. This raises real questions about whether the NHS will be able to maintain its recent record of balancing its books at the end of the financial year. Beyond 2015, the prospects look even more challenging, with further cuts in public spending likely whoever wins the general election. It is now almost inevitable that the next government will have to find more resources for health and social care if services are to be maintained.”

Share on socials:

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

Get content like this straight to your inbox! 

* indicates required
Choose to receive...
Ridouts’ E-Newsletter tailored to:
Events and more

I agree to my data being processed in accordance with Ridouts' privacy policy: