Healthcare expenditure is one of the largest elements, and a growing proportion, of public spending. In the context of limited resources, it is essential for patients and policymakers to understand the return on investment in health care. Productivity, the ratio of output produced to input used, is therefore a key performance metric for the English NHS. In addition, measuring NHS productivity growth is an important tool for assessing future funding needs. Finally, in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, evaluating the extent to which the NHS has recovered to pre-pandemic levels of productivity is of great policy relevance. In this report we extend previous investigations into NHS productivity growth carried out at the University of York. Embedded in National Accounting Systems, we use an index number approach, to calculate growth in both NHS inputs, outputs and productivity. Outputs are also adjusted for the quality of care provided. This report has two objectives, (1) to provide an update on NHS productivity between 2022/23 and 2023/24, and (2) similarly to last year’s report (Arabadzhyan et al., 2024) to evaluate whether the NHS system has recovered from the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic by determining the productivity growth between 2019/20 and 2023/24. Our findings indicate that NHS productivity continued to grow between 2022/23 and 2023/24, rising by 3.00% under the indirect method and 3.25% under the mixed method. However, when compared with 2019/20, productivity in 2023/24 is equal to -9.15% and -10.39%, respectively. NHS productivity has been steadily recovering since the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, with this most recent period showing a small year-on-year improvement, with increases of 1.58% (indirect method) and 0.23% (mixed method) compared to 2022/23.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)