NHS under the knife…..
It appears that the NHS like private organisations will pay for the banking sector’s profligacy with majorly reduced spending in future years.
NHS Chief Executive, David Nicholson, was interviewed recently and stated that “all bets are off” as the health service prepares itself for impending spending cuts. He said, “We need to move away from the NHS being built for growth to being able to sustain itself in a prolonged limitation on resources”
In a report last week it was announced that the NHS would have to make up to £15 -20 billion worth of efficiency savings between 2011-14. The squeeze to achieve those goals would have to start now. The report was based on specified budgets by the Labour Government for the coming years, but on current opinion polls it seems likely the Conservatives will get voted in at the next election. Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said he could not guarantee a Conservative Government would stick to the NHS allocations for 2010-11 let alone 2011-14. They have not ruled out changes to respond to the public finance crisis…so potentially even leaner times ahead for the NHS.
It appears the cuts in spending are coming at a time when the costs of providing new treatments and services for an ageing population are increasing. So what can be done to improve the situation?
After years of expansion the NHS is unlikely to be able to simply grow to meet demand, raising the prospect of some very difficult decisions ahead. I strongly believe that interim managers do have a major role in delivering these efficiencies, but am interested to hear from people with ideas on where these efficiencies can be made.
Paul Fleming is Head of the Health Sector at Interim Partners.
