GETTYThe amount of time and money wasted in the NHS could actually be spent saving lives
Finding the money to pay for the NHS is a headache for every chancellor. Millions of baby-boomers are discovering their bodies need running repairs. A few of us are at the stage where parts are not just wearing out but seem to have dropped off.
Falling birth rates from the 1960s have created a yawning gap between those paying into the NHS and those getting benefits out. Longer life expectancy means this problem can only get worse. The number of over-65s is projected to rise from 2012's 11million to 18million by 2037.
The number of over-85s will more than double from 1.4million then to 3.6million by 2037 when alarmingly I shall be 88.
The NHS costs us £113billion a year, or £2,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. Another way of looking at it is that out of every £1,000 we earn more than £100 goes on the NHS. We do get reasonable value for money: the NHS is cheap compared with our European neighbours' health systems. The problem is finding extra cash to improve it from already too high taxes.
There is no shortage of alternatives competing for the Chancellor's largesse: schools, transport, welfare or more dubious items such as overseas aid. So it is vital we squeeze every last ounce of benefit out of every pound the NHS does spend. Sadly we do not always do that.
One cure for the Chancellor's headache is to look at the NHS painkillers bill. It spends £80million a year on paracetamol for which 22million prescriptions were written last year at an average cost of £3.67, 13 per cent up on the year before.
At least 85million prescriptions have been written since 2010, costing £282million. Yet supermarkets sell the drug for pennies. Why on earth is the NHS paying £3.67 for tablets you can buy at Boots for 23p?
The NHS budget continues to be ringfenced and rises inexorably year by year. How much more inefficiency can be cut from its bloated budget? The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AMRC), representing the UK's 250,000 doctors, reported last month that: "Around 20 per cent of mainstream clinical practice brings no benefit to the patient and there is widespread overuse of tests and interventions. Investigations, medications, hospital beds and theatre time are clinical resources that are wasted if not used to maximise value for patients."
The year-long study found that the NHS wasted about £2.3billion every year by conducting procedures it could have provided more affordably or avoided altogether. For example one in five patients receives X-rays for minor injuries, costing £221million a year. Doctors' dependence on pharmaceutical treatment was also criticised. The AMRC claimed that £466million could have been saved by doctors if they stopped prescribing "cocktails of drugs" to older patients.
Why is the NHS paying £3.67 for tablets you can buy at Boots for 23p?
Such figures pale into insignificance when compared with some colossally misconceived or mismanaged IT projects.
Most memorably, £12billion was wasted on a failed IT system supposed to centralise our medical records.
Those who know how to run a business in the private sector are shocked by hopeless public sector procurement practices. Sir Philip Green, billionaire boss of Topshop and Next, identified many key areas for improvement in 2010. He said he would go bust if he ran his businesses the way the Government does.
He highlighted areas where there were huge differences in price for the same item, noting that 71,000 central government buyers can spend up to £1,000 a month without any checks. In IT alone 400 private sector employees were being hired at daily rates that topped £1,000.
One hospital trust uncovered some 950 printers in use, although the IT director had been adamant there were no more than 350. Most of these printers had been signed off by individual office managers, or even bought with petty cash. Central purchasing could have cut the numbers and achieved better value for money. Low-cost printers equal high-cost ink or toner cartridges and, because most such items are purchased in batches, they often sit in cupboards unused, outliving the printer itself.
SPECTACULAR inefficiencies such as these can quickly mount up in a nationalised operation as vast as the NHS. Print procurement specialist the Danwood Group believes the 165 NHS trusts could save more than £33million per year just from managing NHS printing better, before we even consider savings from better management of medical consumables.
Unfortunately every time a private sector company produces money-saving ideas Labour and trade union dinosaurs start shroud-waving about NHS privatisation. We need to fight back because NHS inefficiency costs lives. One of them might be yours.
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