The King's Fund is advocating the U.K.'s National Health Service (NHS) save 22 billion pounds (28 billion euros) by 2020-2021 in its new report.
The English health charity designed to shape health and social care policy and practice recommends the NHS make productivity improvements and focus on value to realize the savings.
The report discusses trends in NHS productivity in generic prescribing, length of stay, and day case surgery. The report also discusses where NHS already has made significant and sustained gains in productivity over a number of years without an adverse effect on the quality of care.
The document also offers areas for improvement, which include the following:
- Inappropriate overuse, underuse, and misuse of care
- Identifying and removing unwarranted variations in clinical practice
- Finding better ways of delivering care and support services for specific patient groups
