NHS England has published the latest data on productivity growth to October, data that compares the same period in the previous year, for activity (cost‑weighted), resource use (in real terms), and productivity.
Coming out with the greatest increase in October’s figures for acute providers was The Princess Alexandra Hospital with 14.3 percent; followed by Blackpool Teaching Hospitals with 14.2 percent; and East Sussex Healthcare with 11.9 percent. Next was Isle of Wight with 11.3 percent; University College London Hospitals with 10.9 percent; Whittington Health with 8.4 percent; and University Hospitals of Leicester with 7.8 percent.
Greater Manchester Mental Health’s 46.4 percent topped the table for mental health and community providers, followed by Leeds and York Partnership at 38 percent; Surrey and Borders Partnership with 29.2 percent; Cornwall Partnership with 25.9 percent; Devon Partnership with 25.1 percent; and Lincolnshire Partnership with 17.2 percent.
As far as specialist and ambulance trusts, South Central Ambulance Service’s October productivity growth of 21.3 percent was enough for top spot in the ranking. East of England Ambulance achieved 10.3 percent; London Ambulance achieved 8.6 percent; and South Western Ambulance Service achieved 7.3 percent.
Overall, acute and specialist providers achieved a productivity growth of 2.8 percent; whilst for community a loss of 1.4 percent was recorded. Mental health providers increased productivity by 7.8 percent, and ambulance by 5.7 percent. Across all providers, a 3.5 percent total increase in productivity was reported.
The provisional updates will be revised again in next month’s publication, with the potential for changes in reported activity to need to be reflected, NHSE states. All estimates will be further reviewed at the end of the financial year.
“The NHS is currently well on track to deliver the productivity target over the SR period, through a sharp focus on operational and clinical productivity,” NHSE stated in its February board meeting. “In the past 18 months, we have sustained delivery over the 2 percent productivity target, including a 2.7 percent improvement in 24/25 and a 2.6 percent improvement in acute hospital productivity in the first half of 25/26.”
Looking ahead, the board notes that the kind of progressive productivity set out in the productivity plan “can only be achieved through large-scale transformation in NHS technology, backed by the additional funding allocated at the Spending Review settlement”. It also points to “significant allocative efficiencies” to be realised from the shift left, alongside prevention, and “radically reimagined” care models that harness new and emerging technologies.
Wider trend: digital transformation across the health sector
NHS England has launched its Solution Exchange, a catalogue of digital tools, solutions, and resources, designed to help NHS organisations discover and adopt new technologies. Based in the Federated Data Platform (FDP), the catalogue is said to bring together proven tools and innovations with the aim of reducing duplication and accelerating the use of data-driven solutions. “NHS trusts and integrated care systems can browse the catalogue, deploy solutions directly into their local platform, or use the secure developer workspace to build and test new tools with sample data,” NHSE explains.
The UK Government has published its National Cancer Plan for England, backed by billions of pounds worth of investments in areas such as digital diagnostics, and informed by almost 12,000 responses to an earlier call for evidence from individuals and organisations. Where it reports previous plans have failed to disrupt “outdated” care models, the government hopes this time to draw on the 10-Year Plan’s three shifts to redesign cancer pathways and modernise approaches to cancer care. Advances in data, genomics, and predictive analytics are in focus to drive pre-emptive care, it continues, while digital therapeutics and the NHS App will give patients choice and control, and partnership will promote innovation and access to clinical trials. A new system of “earned autonomy” and the creation of new incentives for innovation and modernisation are similarly hoped to support rapid transformation.
For our EPR feature series, we took a deep dive and reflected on some of the progress made around EPRs over the last 12 months across more than 30 NHS trusts, focusing-in on implementations, on optimisation and benefits realisation, on future plans, and on insights from the wider health and care sector.
