Listening to ministers and NHS leaders, the narrative is very much that health service finances are on the mend - but new figures show cash bailouts to local hospitals are on the rise. from @zoetidman.bsky.social www.hsj.co.uk/cash-bailout...

Following the US-UK drug pricing agreement, changes to the way the cost effectiveness of new medicines are assessed will drive up the NHS drugs bill. In this new blog, Eric Yang argues that the higher bill means difficult decisions lie ahead for the government. Read more ⬇️ https://bit.ly/3QrzvpX

WEBINAR: What can we learn about productivity from the NHS? Chaired by Anita Charlesworth from our #NHSProductivityCommission, this event will hear from an expert panel on what we can learn from experiences of and within the health service. Register now ⬇️ https://bit.ly/4rlNOcx

Really looking forward to this event - do sign up if interested

Great comment by @helensalisbury.bsky.social in this week's BMJ and one that far too many NHS managers, leaders and politicians miss entirely: doi.org/10.1136/bmj.... ...

WEBINAR: As part of evidence-gathering work by the NHS #ProductivityCommission, this event will hear from an expert panel on what we can learn from international evidence and best practice. Register ⬇️ https://bit.ly/45dbZ4O

Interesting article by @policyskeptic.bsky.social on what could best improve productivity. Agree that an understanding of flow and patient pathways is critical; coordination is also an important challenge in a system as complex as the NHS

This feels like an important finding (albeit from one US study): GLP-1 medications (Ozempic, Mounjaro etc) *do not* pay for themselves by reducing other types of medical spending, at least in the first five years. If anything, GLP-1s increase other forms of medical spending.

and the failure to implement solutions right in front of our eyes because of the fixation with "innovation" and digital for its own sake Examples from my daily practice which have got worse by far recently 1. Endless (discharge) transport delays 2. Endless (discharge) equipment delivery delays

What's going on? Could productivity in individual trusts really be bouncing around so much? Definitely raises questions about how informative this measure is - we've always found it surprising how high and low some of the changes are [2/2]

An interesting nugget buried in Treasury evidence to the Pay Review Bodies: In recent years, the NHS and other departments have (with HMT permission) raided capital budgets to fund unexpectedly high pay awards. Updated guidance explicitly rules this out.

CLOSING SOON: The #NHSProductivity Commission want to hear from NHS leaders, front-line staff, business and industry experts, patients and the public. Submit your ideas on how productivity could be improved across hospital, primary and community care, and mental health ⬇️ https://bit.ly/4oHG9UY

NEW REPORT: abolishing NHS England could help simplify accountability, improve prioritisation and create savings. But the change could also lead to increases in policy incoherence and blame culture, as well as the loss of skills, capacity and focus on areas outside the day-to-day NHS.

This week's Budget provided a modest funding boost to NHS capital for digital infrastructure, which could help unlock some productivity gains. However, with no substantive increase to day-to-day spending, Hiba Sameen says the NHS's financial position remains precarious⬇️ https://bit.ly/4irRvun

Why has #NHS #productivity underperformed? Same as the broader economy: lack of productive capital to support workers. Capital per worker declined by a massive 36% to 2020, probably more since. #dataisbeautiful #NHSProductivityCommission report: bit.ly/3WPxu76 UK's capital gap: bit.ly/455vGwe

More striking stats from our #NHSProductivityCommission report (bit.ly/3WPxu76). UK hospital length of stay (a key #productivity indicator) increased hugely from 2019 to 2023. Hospital employment jumped by >15%. No wonder £ spent are not translating into better health outcomes. #dataisbeautiful

@policyskeptic.bsky.social latest @hsj.co.uk column makes significant points about NHS productivity policy @healthfoundation.bsky.social NHS Productivity Commission last week published our first report which makes many of the points Steve makes. A few examples 👇 www.health.org.uk/reports-and-...

Interesting piece from @policyskeptic.bsky.social Notable that recovery plans on the 4-hour A&E standard fall short of the constitutional target, unlike the commitment on elective waits

NOW OPEN: The #NHSProductivityCommission Call for Evidence is a chance for you to share your ideas about how productivity could be improved across hospital care, primary care, community care and mental health. More information and guidance for responding ⬇️ https://bit.ly/4oHG9UY

NHS hospital activity and resources - actual and compared to pre covid trend. Planned care is at or above trend, but emergency care is below. Drop in emergency admissions is most stark, but this could reflect more use of same day emergency care (SDEC). Jump in workforce explains productivity hit.

Can the NHS meet its 2% productivity challenge? With @strategyunit.bsky.social​ we gathered 14 experts from clinical, policy and research backgrounds to forecast NHS productivity growth over the next decade. We share their thoughts based on understandings of current trends ⬇️ https://bit.ly/4qnzZLi

Will today's changes to the GP contract in England requiring online access all day mark the end of the '8am scramble' or the start of GP waiting lists and further dissatisfaction, on all sides? I explore the issue in this @healthfoundation.bsky.social blog www.health.org.uk/features-and...

Tim Meek, of Assoc of Anaesthetists, says paper records were faster than current NHS tech. Says it used to take three mins to go through a set of paper notes. "It now might take 10 minutes to scroll through maybe four or five different apps on a slow laptop" #hcf25 #Lab25

Interested in #CareCloserToHome or #NeighbourhoodHealth ? You'll want to take a look at this new report (Future Demand for Community Care) and blog from my @strategyunit.bsky.social colleagues Justine Wiltshire and Peter Spilsbury: www.strategyunitwm.nhs.uk/publications... #NHS #CommunityServices

NEW: first-in-kind study widescale implementation of #AI in #NHS 👇🏻 Impt lessons for procurement & early deployment #AI in #healthcare. #digitalhealth @nuffieldtrust.org.uk @nihr.bsky.social @uclnews.bsky.social

Scotland published their drug-related deaths figures for 2024 last week. For only the second time since 2013 they show a fall year-on-year, so while they remain very high by historical standards, this is at least a sign of progress in the right direction. Here's a 🧵of a few graphs...

fully agree. i wrote this a couple of years ago about this! www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Innovative virtual eye clinics in shopping centres could significantly reduce waiting times for routine eye appointments, UCL-led research suggests in a first-of-its-kind study. www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/ju... 👁️

NHS trust financial planning latest

🆕 Why higher prices for new drugs are no NHS panacea In the FT @sallygainsbury.bsky.social & Huseyin Naci say that when a new drug is introduced it could displace more health improvement than it brings, as the NHS has to stop doing something else in order to afford the innovation. buff.ly/24uGpka

The quaint idea the #NHS exists to improve health has been supplemented with the idea it can also drive economic #growth. My thoughts on the gamble the gov is making by inviting in more tech- and pharma- and whether we’ll end up with less as a consequence: www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/news-item/an...

NEW: A long read from @sallygainsbury.bsky.social examines a conundrum for policy makers: How can the NHS meet public demand while also positioning the NHS as an engine for economic growth? www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/news-item/an...

10 YEAR PLAN - Efficiency pt2 Buckle in folks, this is a longer one. The Plan stays onside with people on efficiency without taking a baseball bat to the shins of the worst offenders. It hints strongly though that a delivery plan must do better nationally. My view on things in the Plan. 1/13

10 YEAR PLAN - TECH The tech bits of the Plan are largely self-explanatory but are wildly ambitious beyond many people's credibility. It's a fine line. To achieve it will need massive culture changes, funding that's permanently scarce, and some legislative efforts as well. 1/

📊 Following the recent #SpendingReview, updated #REALCentre analysis of health care funding for England shows: • How much has been committed. • How it compares to historical levels. • If it is enough to meet current pressures. Read more ⬇️

It’s a critical time to be shaping the future of health policy. This job puts you right at the heart of the Health Foundation’s influencing work. Get involved.

I wrote a new piece on how much progress has been made in treating childhood leukemia. The answer is: quite a lot! Before the 1970s, fewer than 10% of children diagnosed survived 5 years after diagnosis. Now most are cured and around 85% survive that long. ourworldindata.org/childhood-le...

Responding to the government’s first multi-year #SpendingReview today, our Chief Executive @jenniferthf.bsky.social says that while a real terms funding increase of 3% a year is a good settlement for the NHS, the government’s health mission is missing in action. Read more ⬇️ https://bit.ly/4kIKcz0

NEW: Future challenges for health and social care provision in the UK @MaxWarnerIFS and @BenZaranko's journal article in the Oxford Review of Economic Policy considers recent trends in health and social care productivity and the scope for future improvements: ifs.org.uk/journals/fut...

Ahead of the SR next week, my long read today looks at where the £22.6bn extra cash chancellor Reeves added to health spending in England for this year has gone. A thread >>

The NHS is still struggling to reduce the number of central performance targets and metrics: www.hsj.co.uk/integrated-c... I predict many lobbies will complain that their favourite metric is being deprioritised. They miss the point...

At £118.75 a week, low statutory sick pay is a real issue. One figure we didn’t include: households with a full-time worker spend £193 a week on essentials like food, housing, fuel and power. Even among lower income households, it’s £128. SSP doesn’t cover the basics.

NHS trust finances in a nutshell: 1) big injection of cash halfway through the year to bring deficit down 2) trust quickly falls back into deficit 3) even bigger last-minute bung in February (not planned for) 4) trust reports it has achieved its financial plan

The number of patients spending longer than 12 hours in Scottish A&Es began to increase sharply in the summer of 2021. The increase continued through 2022, and it’s been averaging about 5,700 a month since the beginning of 2023. #rstats #ggplot2 1/5

@policyskeptic.bsky.social I was expecting a relationship when I drew my scatterplot. But I - perhaps naively - wasn't expecting a relationship as strong as this. Lightning conductor relationship between delays at the hospital back door and delays at the hospital front door.

The mantra that the NHS just needs to cut “bureaucracy” to spend more on “frontline staff” is so unthinking. There will need to be extra investment in management/admin (eg new IT) in order to increase productivity.