Economic news

Vital signs improve for English healthcare productivity, think tank says

2024.11.11 20:11

(Reuters) – Productivity in England’s health service, which fell sharply after the COVID-19 pandemic and is a top priority for the new Labour government, is showing tentative signs of improvement, a think tank report showed on Tuesday.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said growth in hospital activity had far outstripped increases in staffing over the last year, suggesting new workers were being put to good use – even if this had not yet made a big dent in treatment waiting lists.

Restoring the National Health Service is one of the five missions of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government, elected in a landslide in July.

Last month finance minister Rachel Reeves announced sharp increases in tax, spending and borrowing to repair public services, which a vast majority of Britons say are in a poor state.

“While undoubtedly positive news, we should remember that NHS productivity is still below where it was pre-pandemic and will require a further period of improvement before the post-pandemic productivity hit is fully unwound,” Olly Harvey-Rich, research economist at the IFS.

“Nonetheless, this is a welcome development, particularly as the NHS heads into winter.”

The IFS said the number of consultants in NHS England had grown by 3.6% in January to July 2024 compared with a year previously, and there were 6.4% more nurses and health visitors too. But growth in services was much stronger, with elective admissions up by 10.3% and outpatient appointments rising 9.2%.

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A Junior Doctor holds his stethoscope during a patient visit on Ward C22 at The Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital in East Lancashire, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Blackburn, Britain, May 14, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/Pool/ File Photo

Overall public sector productivity, dominated by healthcare and education, last year stood around 3% below its level of 1997, according to official data.

Earlier this year, NHS England cited several factors for the drop in productivity, including: strikes, temporary staffing costs, changing needs of patients and past real-terms cuts to healthcare investment that had harmed the resilience of the NHS.



Source link

Related Articles

Back to top button
bitcoin
Bitcoin (BTC) $ 90,820.33 1.99%
ethereum
Ethereum (ETH) $ 3,182.44 3.08%
tether
Tether (USDT) $ 1.00 0.02%
solana
Solana (SOL) $ 212.77 0.62%
bnb
BNB (BNB) $ 616.02 2.23%
dogecoin
Dogecoin (DOGE) $ 0.388799 1.14%
xrp
XRP (XRP) $ 0.687097 0.37%
usd-coin
USDC (USDC) $ 1.00 0.11%
staked-ether
Lido Staked Ether (STETH) $ 3,177.58 3.14%
cardano
Cardano (ADA) $ 0.571364 1.02%
tron
TRON (TRX) $ 0.176367 6.13%
shiba-inu
Shiba Inu (SHIB) $ 0.000025 3.64%
wrapped-steth
Wrapped stETH (WSTETH) $ 3,771.66 2.92%
avalanche-2
Avalanche (AVAX) $ 32.79 4.61%
the-open-network
Toncoin (TON) $ 5.21 3.65%
wrapped-bitcoin
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) $ 90,519.25 2.06%
sui
Sui (SUI) $ 3.25 3.83%
weth
WETH (WETH) $ 3,180.59 3.18%
bitcoin-cash
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 435.73 0.63%
chainlink
Chainlink (LINK) $ 13.41 5.32%
pepe
Pepe (PEPE) $ 0.000019 39.44%
polkadot
Polkadot (DOT) $ 5.09 5.23%
leo-token
LEO Token (LEO) $ 7.39 0.82%
aptos
Aptos (APT) $ 11.83 4.60%
near
NEAR Protocol (NEAR) $ 5.15 2.56%
wrapped-eeth
Wrapped eETH (WEETH) $ 3,357.44 2.86%
litecoin
Litecoin (LTC) $ 74.91 2.61%
usds
USDS (USDS) $ 0.994298 1.11%
uniswap
Uniswap (UNI) $ 8.53 4.41%
crypto-com-chain
Cronos (CRO) $ 0.169185 7.93%
dogwifcoin
dogwifhat (WIF) $ 4.16 34.52%
internet-computer
Internet Computer (ICP) $ 8.48 4.80%
bittensor
Bittensor (TAO) $ 535.09 5.76%
stellar
Stellar (XLM) $ 0.123308 3.07%
ethereum-classic
Ethereum Classic (ETC) $ 21.97 3.43%
dai
Dai (DAI) $ 1.00 0.30%
fetch-ai
Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) $ 1.25 10.49%
whitebit
WhiteBIT Coin (WBT) $ 22.38 2.76%
kaspa
Kaspa (KAS) $ 0.12628 9.53%
ethena-usde
Ethena USDe (USDE) $ 1.00 0.08%
polygon-ecosystem-token
POL (ex-MATIC) (POL) $ 0.375455 6.39%
blockstack
Stacks (STX) $ 1.92 6.33%
monero
Monero (XMR) $ 146.73 4.47%
render-token
Render (RENDER) $ 6.87 4.43%
okb
OKB (OKB) $ 44.70 0.83%
aave
Aave (AAVE) $ 173.41 4.53%
bonk
Bonk (BONK) $ 0.000036 8.16%
arbitrum
Arbitrum (ARB) $ 0.615201 2.07%
filecoin
Filecoin (FIL) $ 4.08 4.00%
mantle
Mantle (MNT) $ 0.704541 4.85%