Ministers hint at NHS waste review

Wednesday, 2 February 2011 12:01 AM

By Alex Stevenson

Up to £500 million of NHS can be saved simply by changing basic buying habits, a spending watchdog has said.

The National Audit Office's (NAO) report, published today, has prompted ministers to consider launching a review helping hospitals get better value for money from procurement.

It found that many NHS trusts are not getting value for money because they purchase different types of the same product.

Trusts bought 652 types of medical gloves, 21 types of A4 paper and 1,751 types of cannulas - tubes which are inserted in the body.

"In the new NHS of constrained budgets, trust chief executives should consider procurement as a strategic priority," NAO chief Amyas Morse said.

"Given the scale of the potential savings which the NHS is currently failing to capture, we believe it is important to find effective ways to hold trusts directly to account to parliament for their procurement practices."

The NHS must find £20 billion of savings which health secretary Andrew Lansley plans to reinvest more effectively. The £500 million figure represents five per cent of this, but is ten per cent of hospitals' total spending on consumables.

Margaret Hodge, chair of the Commons' public accounts committee, said it was "simply unacceptable" that the prices hospitals pay can vary by as much as 100%.

"The range of similar products that trusts buy is sometimes so wide as to appear ridiculous," she added.

"How can it be, for instance, that while one trust does its work with just 13 different types of surgical glove, another requires 177?

"These are well-known recipes for poor value for money that really ought to have been addressed by now."

Individual trusts acting alone are unlikely to make much progress, the report made clear, meaning greater rationalisation to secure bulk purchasing price benefits seems likely.

But, as Ms Hodge pointed out, "the proposed NHS reforms will take decentralisation still further".

"The more efficient the NHS becomes, the more we can invest back into patient care," Mr Lansley said in response to the report.

"That is why it's so important for hospitals to deal with wasteful procurement.

"While it is up to local hospitals to decide how they purchase products, government has a role in providing support and robust information."

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