King’s Fund report praises NHS progress
pharmafile | April 12, 2010 | News story | | NHS, election, king's fund
A new King’s Fund report on how the NHS has fared under 13 years of Labour government has concluded that it has made good progress overall, but says there is still a long way to go.
“The NHS was in intensive care,” says King’s Fund chief executive Professor Chris Ham. “As a result of investment and reform, it is now in active rehabilitation and is delivering more care to more people, more quickly.”
The report entitled ‘A High Performing NHS?’ concludes: “There is no doubt that the NHS is closer to being a high-performing health system now than it was in 1997.”
Among the most serious problems is health inequality, which has continued to grow during the period, despite the extra investment.
The report adds that variations in access to drugs have also not been eliminated
Infant mortality has been reduced and life expectancy has improved for all social groups in England – but progress has been slower among more deprived groups, despite initiatives concentrated on them.
“Questions remain about the extent to which reducing inequalities has received adequate investment and commitment from the NHS, especially given the competing priorities,” the report suggests.
An increase in the wage bill has absorbed more than half the increase in resources available to the NHS since 2002, the report says “substantial” savings have been made in the cost of medicines.
And the use of lower-priced drugs, along with reducing lengths of stay in hospitals and increasing the rate of day case surgery, are among its key recommendations for making cost savings.
One therapy area where access to cost-effective drugs has improved is cancer, the report says, along with greatly improved waiting times for diagnoses and treatment for these patients.
Uptake of NICE-approved drugs has also improved consistency of service across the NHS, the report says.
Overall NHS successes include improved access to primary care, plus reductions in waiting times, infection rates, deaths due to cancer and cardiovascular disease, and rates of smoking.
But productivity has declined since 1997 – a severe problem given the potential £21 billion productivity gap facing the NHS by 2013-14.
Cancer survival rates also lag behind some other EU countries and obesity and alcohol-related illness have increased.
Areas requiring greater attention include the pressures created by an ageing population, and the delivery of care for chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and dementia.
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