NHS reforms could save £2.2bn

12 April 2012

The NHS could save £2.2 billion a year if trusts improved the way they handled some services, the Government has said.

There is wide variation in the way NHS trusts in England respond to areas like emergency hospital admissions and inpatient lengths of stay, it said.

Earlier this year, Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson said unnecessary tonsillectomies and hysterectomies were costing the NHS £21 million a year, despite other options being available.

The Government says that around £2.2bn a year could be saved by reducing avoidable emergency admissions for conditions like angina and asthma (saving £348m), reducing "wasted" bed days - some trusts admit around 10% of patients the day before their operation whereas others admit 60% (saving £510m) and improving the discharge process - the Government says there are "wide variations" between hospitals on how long patients stay in (saving £975m).

Savings can also be made by carrying out more procedures as day-only cases (saving £16m), reducing variation on the number of outpatient referrals (saving £278m) and avoiding unnecessary surgical procedures - such as tonsillectomies and hysterectomies (saving £73m).

The Department of Health has published 16 "performance indicators" which will be sent to all NHS trusts.

They show how each trust measures up and the potential savings if each one performed as well as the the trust at the bottom of a ladder containing the top 25% of trusts.

Health Minister Andy Burnham said the move would "unlock" £2.2bn for reinvestment in patient care and was not about "penny pinching or cutting corners".

Examples given include Plymouth Teaching Primary Care Trust potentially saving £2.48m if it cuts unnecessary emergency admissions for 19 conditions.

The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS Trust could potentially save £6.1m if it reduced lengths of stay while the Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust could save £11m, the indicators show.

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