'How to save the NHS £12bn in one year without stopping a single operation'

The 2020Health think tank is launching a report - Cutting the costs without cancelling the Services - which outlines ways to save the NHS £12bn in one year.

2020Health is led by Julia Manning, a member of the Tory candidates list, and enjoys close links to Andrew Lansley, the Health secretary. Commenting on the report - written jointly with Gail Beer and Emma Hill - Ms Manning states:

“The NHS can deliver £12 billion in savings over the next year which can be re-invested in new technology and elderly care... There is no need for health trusts to make rash decisions, cancelling operations or axing doctors which will permanently affect clinical outcomes for patients. These savings can be made ahead of the longer term changes that will save money such as reconfiguration of services, reducing practice variation, reducing low-level demand and opening up more competition.”

The following economies are among some of those suggested:

• Merging emergency services administration – SAVE £14.4m
• Investing to improve staff’s health and wellbeing, reduce sickness absence and so cut agency worker’s costs – SAVE £555m
• Forcing mergers of pathology labs to save duplication – SAVE £880m
• 5% across the board pay cut for all NHS staff for just one year – SAVE £1.8bn
• Withholding hospital payments for hospital acquired infections – SAVE £150m
• Slashing management spend - SAVE £1.5bn
• Enhancing NHS counter fraud measures, encouraging trusts to see fraud as a business risk - SAVE £1bn
• Halting any new building plans - SAVE £800 million
• Making NHS IT fit for purpose - SAVE £2bn
• Reducing dependency on prescriptions and medicines waste – SAVE £1.6bn

More are detailed in the report, published on 2020Health's website tomorrow.