The NHS is wasting money on needless tests, drugs and treatments. This is the conclusion of a new report, highlighted in The Guardian, from the Academy of Royal Medical Colleges. The Academy has claimed the NHS is wasting more than £2 billion a year, at a time when the health service is already facing acute funding issues.
The report recommends that doctors and nurses should be questioning the value of every test and treatment they recommend for patients, who often demand treatment. The report claims the NHS could save money through the more careful prescription of medication and by duplicating practices in hospitals that have achieved significant savings.
The report has been rejected by the British Medical Association, but welcomed by Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS England’s medical director. In publishing its report, the Academy of Royal Medical Colleges has again thrust the spotlight onto the NHS and questioned if further changes in practices could help the health service make savings, following suggestions by NHS England’s chief executive, Simon Stevens, that the health service would require an additional £8 billion a year to continue meeting patients’ needs.
