By Lucy Phillips | 15 July 2011
NHS trusts are doubtful about meeting their productivity targets for 2011/12, making cuts to services more likely, according to a King’s Fund survey published today.
The second quarterly monitoring report on the performance of the health service is based on responses from 29 finance directors in acute, mental health and primary care trusts.
The findings show more than half of respondents are ‘uncertain’ about meeting their productivity targets for this financial year. Some 27 finance directors had efficiency targets of 4% or more and 13 of 6% or more. The NHS as a whole is expected to find £20bn of efficiency savings by 2015.
However, all but three of the survey participants expected their trust to break even or be in surplus at the end of this year.
King’s Fund chief economist John Appleby said: ‘This quarter’s report suggests that the government is looking to NHS providers to deliver the lion’s share of productivity improvements, with many facing very tough cost improvement targets as a result. Based on the feedback we received, there must be significant doubt about whether many of these targets will be met.’
Other data from the report, How is the NHS performing?, shows that median hospital waiting times rose in May but the proportion of patients waiting 18 weeks or more for treatment fell for the third consecutive month.
The number of patients waiting longer than four hours in Accident & Emergency departments fell slightly at the beginning of 2011 but remains higher than at any time since 2004.
Appleby added: ‘While waiting times remain low in historical terms, the rise against key target measures since this time last year shows how difficult it will be for the NHS to meet the prime minister’s pledge to keep waiting times low as the spending squeeze begins to bite.’
