NHS could save £5.6bn, claims think tank
A MAJOR overhaul of the NHS, currently struggling with a winter flu crisis, could save an extra £5.6 billion, according to a think tank.
The Centre for Policy Studies is calling in a report published today for a Royal Commission on the NHS to investigate how to deliver improvements in productivity and clinical outcomes. Ideas include encouraging more people to make plans for end of life and introducing performance related pay.
The CPS said these “efficiencies are estimated to be worth a further 3per cent of GDP” or around £5.6billion a year. It said that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development had “named the UK as one of the three countries that would most benefit from a series of proposed efficiencies”.
HEALTH officials are calling for a “serious debate” about introducing mandatory flu jabs for NHS staff, amid a deepening winter crisis.
Sir Bruce Keogh, the NHS medical director, said action was needed to tackle “massive variation” between hospitals, with as few as one third of medical workers vaccinated at some trusts. Experts say around one quarter of NHS staff will contract flu during a typical season. Of those, more than one third will avoid major symptoms.
Sir Bruce urged NHS staff who have not been vaccinated to heed pleas to do so, in order to protect millions of patients. But he suggested far more radical action should be considered in future – including the possibility of mandatory vaccination for staff. “At the moment staff can be going into work and unknowingly transmitting flu to sick patients, and also to other staff at a time when we really need all hands on deck,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
The medical director added a debate about mandatory vaccination was now inevitable. “We need to be discussing this; we need to be looking at the evidence, the best ways to protect patients, the precedents elsewhere, the debate around personal choice, as well as looking at other ways to improve take-up,” he said.
Sir Bruce said major changes could also be achieved if trusts with poor take-up of jabs learnt from the best. “Flu is a double-whammy for the NHS, increasing the number of patients and putting staff out of action, but as a third of people with the virus do not know they are carrying it staff may not know that they are putting patients, colleagues and their own families at risk,” he added.
Latest figures show a tripling in patients admitted to hospital with flu, with one in four suffering from the deadliest strain, dubbed Australian flu, after it fuelled the country’s worst season for two decades. Across England, around 4.5 million people are estimated to be suffering from flu-like symptoms, while France has declared an epidemic.
“This past week’s flu figures underline why it makes sense for NHS staff who haven’t yet had the flu jab now to do so. A proper discussion for next year about mandatory jabs for doctors, nurses and other front line NHS staff would be sensible,” said Sir Bruce.
The calls follow a study by Imperial College London which found every 10 per cent increase in NHS vaccination rates was linked with a 10 per cent fall in sickness absence. In a typical flu season, NHS staff take around 4.3million sick days.
The figure could be reduced by more than a quarter if all trusts matched the vaccination rates of the best.
Health ministers in Australia are considering compulsory vaccination for all staff working with the elderly. And France is just about to introduce compulsory vaccination for all children against 11 diseases, including flu.
Last night Prof Paul Cosford, Public Health England medical director, said: “We would welcome a debate about this. For some, flu can be a particularly serious illness and healthcare workers have an important role to play in protecting the health of the public.”
Dermot O’riordan, surgeon and chief clinical information officer at West Suffolk NHS Foundation trust said mandatory jabs should be introduced in the same way that clinical staff are expected to be vaccinated against hepatitis B, to protect patients.
Dr Kathy Mclean, executive medical director at NHS Improvement said: “It is essential that as many people, particularly front line staff, have their flu jab.”