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Public Services for All > Published by Daniel Elton, February 13th 2012 at 10:15 am

NHS productivity gain is just the latest evidence that socialised medicine brings down costs

The health bill is in even more trouble this morning, as one of the central rationales behind the legislation appeared to crumble.

The government has always argued that the extension of an ‘external market’ to the NHS – patient choice – is required to tackle falling productivity in the NHS.

However, as the BBC reports:

“Official figures do not reflect the real improvements made in the NHS in England, according to a paper in the Lancet medical journal. It says a myth has grown up that the health service became less productive as funding increased…

“The paper argues that politicians have reached a flawed consensus that NHS productivity fell in the decade after 2000…

“Prof Nick Black from the department of public Health and policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London, who wrote the article, argues that it “probably improved”.

“He says assumptions that hospital productivity fell by 1.4 per cent a year, and overall NHS productivity fell by 0.4 per cent a year, are based on analyses by the Office for National Statistics. He says these did not reflect this increase in community-based services, and so may have underestimated the amount of work carried out by the health service….

“‘[However], a review of a much wider range of data than was previously available suggests substantial improvements in the quality of health care’, he argues…

“He cites as evidence falling mortality rates, greater compliance with clinical guidelines, and improving public satisfaction.

“Prof Black acknowledges “some uncertainty” surrounding these data, but he concludes that even a modest improvement in the overall figure, of 0.5 per cent a year, would mean that productivity rose over the decade rather than fell.”

This would tie into international evidence that socialised medicine brings down healthcare costs for the economy as a whole. As Left Foot Forward reported in May 2011:

“There is evidence to suggest that choice and competition in healthcare will, in fact, increase the UK’s spending on health. Take this chart from Kaiser Permanente, who provide healthcare in the United States, on health spends in developed countries:

“In fact, the United Kingdom, with its comparitively statist system, keeps costs down. Why might this be? It may be that in systems based on competition and choice, the lack of expertise on behalf of consumers means that providers can overcharge or charge for treatments which, in all honesty, probably do not have that much chance of working.

“That the government are proposing a two-step choice – consumers choose thier GPs, who in turn help choose the treatment – may help with this; but then again, the consumer will always be at some information disadvantage.

“How an information disadvantage can work in practice can be seen in the energy market, where the regulator OfGem has criticised providers for offering bamboozling products that means time-pressed consumers can’t make an informed choice, therby pushing up prices.”

When evidence confirms theory, it’s time that the Westminster conventional wisdom on the ‘inefficient NHS’ caught up.

See also:

• ConHome: Neuter the health bill – Daniel Elton, February 9th 2011

• The Financial Times comes out against the NHS bill – Alex Hern, February 9th 2012

• Ten reasons peers should vote against Lansley’s anti-NHS bill – Shamik Das, October 12th 2011

• Miliband goes on attack as fight to save the NHS stepped up – Shamik Das, February 6th 2012

• Sign my petition to drop Lansley’s monster – Dr Kailash Chand OBE, November 24th 2011

http://twitter.com/patronpress/status/169001969149689856 Patron Press – #P2

#UK : NHS productivity gain is just the latest evidence that socialised medicine brings down costs http://t.co/BSr1BUiY
http://twitter.com/thatoliverjames/status/169002029757374465 That Oliver James

See more evidence on how socialised medicine provides more efficient healthcare:http://t.co/vxTHd4Is: writes @danielelton #savetheNHS
http://twitter.com/wikimir/status/169002298046033920 Ken Rice

RT @leftfootfwd: NHS productivity gain is just the latest evidence that socialised medicine brings down costs http://t.co/c99Hf4P9
http://twitter.com/drjje/status/169002466896134144 Jake

See more evidence on how socialised medicine provides more efficient healthcare:http://t.co/vxTHd4Is: writes @danielelton #savetheNHS
http://twitter.com/skiptonriponclp/status/169003100177313792 Skipton & Ripon CLP

See more evidence on how socialised medicine provides more efficient healthcare:http://t.co/vxTHd4Is: writes @danielelton #savetheNHS
http://twitter.com/blindjustice41/status/169003729348079616 w.m o’mara

NHS productivity gain just the latest evidence socialised medicine brings down costs http://t.co/D7ofBnCI Cameron's stats flawed…..again!
http://twitter.com/dan1763/status/169003880120717313 Dan Smith

See more evidence on how socialised medicine provides more efficient healthcare:http://t.co/vxTHd4Is: writes @danielelton #savetheNHS
http://twitter.com/eskriv/status/169004123637825536 .:.

See more evidence on how socialised medicine provides more efficient healthcare:http://t.co/vxTHd4Is: writes @danielelton #savetheNHS
http://twitter.com/stevegpreston/status/169005159328911360 Steve Preston

RT @leftfootfwd: NHS productivity gain is just the latest evidence that socialised medicine brings down costs http://t.co/9adNm9xA
http://twitter.com/brummytaff/status/169006287554744320 bob woods

More evidence of how socialised medicine provides more efficient healthcare: http://t.co/vxTHd4Is by @danielelton #savetheNHS #DropTheBill
http://twitter.com/migdurbeville/status/169006456903974912 Wendy Hibbs

See more evidence on how socialised medicine provides more efficient healthcare:http://t.co/vxTHd4Is: writes @danielelton #savetheNHS
http://twitter.com/shamikdas/status/169006705185800194 Shamik Das

More evidence of how socialised medicine provides more efficient healthcare: http://t.co/vxTHd4Is by @danielelton #savetheNHS #DropTheBill
http://twitter.com/creativecrip/status/169006952771362816 TheCreativeCrip

See more evidence on how socialised medicine provides more efficient healthcare:http://t.co/vxTHd4Is: writes @danielelton #savetheNHS
http://twitter.com/mrhuishdances/status/169007009063112704 MrHuish

See more evidence on how socialised medicine provides more efficient healthcare:http://t.co/vxTHd4Is: writes @danielelton #savetheNHS
http://twitter.com/britishroses1/status/169007803489464320 BevR

More evidence of how socialised medicine provides more efficient healthcare: http://t.co/vxTHd4Is by @danielelton #savetheNHS #DropTheBill
http://twitter.com/kcoch/status/169007912864321538 KEVIN COCHRANE

More evidence of how socialised medicine provides more efficient healthcare: http://t.co/vxTHd4Is by @danielelton #savetheNHS #DropTheBill
http://twitter.com/leftlinks/status/169010338115764224 leftlinks

Left Foot Forward – NHS productivity gain is just the latest evidence that socialised medicine… http://t.co/QV6PdEYe
http://twitter.com/pulpark/status/169010704983146496 Pulp Ark

NHS productivity gain is just the latest evidence that socialised… http://t.co/jFI7YOmf #Public_Services_for_All #muslim #tcot #sioa
http://twitter.com/britishroses1/status/169011038208016384 BevR

See more evidence on how socialised medicine provides more efficient healthcare:http://t.co/vxTHd4Is: writes @danielelton #savetheNHS
Blarg1987

It is interestig that the paper work increased around the time that productivity fell, due to all parties claiming more accountability and the explosion of no win no fee meaning front line staff of all public services have to cover themselves by doing more paperwork or being the scape ghoat should it all fail.

Interesting that as part of the bill they are getting ride of alot of the accountability and say they can only get ride of it through everythign else rather then doing that first and see how productivity is likely to improve.
http://twitter.com/bankruptbanks/status/169015876178292737 Bankrupt Banks

RT @leftfootfwd: NHS productivity gain, the latest evidence that socialised medicine brings down costs http://t.co/KQaIe27e
http://twitter.com/alexsmithnp/status/169019296712884225 Alex Smith

More evidence of how socialised medicine provides more efficient healthcare: http://t.co/vxTHd4Is by @danielelton #savetheNHS #DropTheBill
http://twitter.com/marysweeney0/status/169021113383399424 mary sweeney

More evidence of how socialised medicine provides more efficient healthcare: http://t.co/vxTHd4Is by @danielelton #savetheNHS #DropTheBill
http://twitter.com/rothschild999/status/169023662861713408 Michael Lee Rawlings

NHS productivity gain is just the latest evidence that socialised medicine …: “Prof Nick Black from the depart… http://t.co/DtFamLif
http://twitter.com/harrytcook/status/169029488825470976 Harry Cook

#NHS I like this graph. Switzerland has one of the most heavily privatized health systems in Europe. Funny that.
http://t.co/IIgYI5tT
http://twitter.com/nickcdx/status/169038235362787328 Nick Beddow

More evidence of how socialised medicine provides more efficient healthcare: http://t.co/vxTHd4Is by @danielelton #savetheNHS #DropTheBill
http://twitter.com/thatgeoffchap/status/169056890821689344 Geoff White

See more evidence on how socialised medicine provides more efficient healthcare:http://t.co/vxTHd4Is: writes @danielelton #savetheNHS
http://twitter.com/oilywaters/status/169201963853037568 H. O.

RT @leftfootfwd: NHS productivity gain is just the latest evidence that socialised medicine brings down costs http://t.co/DrSpsKZ5
http://twitter.com/newreddawn/status/169224798650642433 Mr Dobbs

#nhs http://t.co/GP9iIO6O socialised health care brings down costs. #occupylsx
http://twitter.com/bfm/status/169231665112166401 Blackford Middleton

NHS productivity gain is just the latest evidence that socialised medicine brings down costs http://t.co/TbN13aHf via @zite
http://twitter.com/doctorbokhari/status/169283682459328512 Tanveer Bokhari

NHS productivity gain is just the latest evidence that socialised medicine brings down costs http://t.co/TbN13aHf via @zite
http://twitter.com/hutch1975/status/169368700477120512 Michael Brown

RT @leftfootfwd: NHS productivity gain is just the latest evidence that socialised medicine brings down costs http://t.co/ulZL3bOb
http://www.leftfootforward.org/2012/02/look-left-17-02-12/ Look Left – The fight for the soul of the NHS goes on | Left Foot Forward

[...] to “put this increasingly confused legislation out of its misery”; and read Daniel Elton’s report on how productivity gain in the NHS is more evidence of socialised evidence bringing down [...]