If the NHS were more productive, it could also save £33 billion, a new think tank report has found
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The NHS could avoid up to 20,600 deaths each year with its current funding if it were more productive, a new think tank report has said.
Analysis by the Health Foundation think tank found thousands of deaths could be avoided if the NHS were better at diagnosing conditions earlier, such as cancer, and could save lives without spending more money.
The think tank also found there is “substantial scope to improve outcomes within the funding already available to the NHS”, which could also result in an average of an extra 2.5 to 4.5 years of good health for people.
When asked where the NHS could make the most improvements to reduce avoidable deaths, researchers said diagnosing cancer earlier and finding people with high blood pressure or conditions such as diabetes. Overall, the study said improving NHS productivity could deliver £33 billion in annual savings.
Around one in five types of cancer are diagnosed through emergency routes like trips to A&E.
Anita Charlesworth, report author and senior economic adviser at the Health Foundation, said: “This is mission critical for the NHS, which cannot simply keep doing more of the same.
“We've got the goal, obviously, to improve five-year survival for cancer from currently around 60 per cent to 75 per cent by 2035. Early diagnosis will be critical to that.
“It's technically possible. Obviously, in a lot of areas we also know that we're still diagnosing far too many cancers in A&E as an emergency, rather than picking them up earlier. So that would be an example of a potentially preventable, early death.”
She also said for diseases such as cardiovascular disease there are too many people with undiagnosed and unmanaged hypertension, and also people with diabetes who are diagnosed late, when it is harder to manage.
“Early diagnosis and secondary prevention are really, really critical; we have parts of the country that are doing that really, really well, and other parts of the country, which are really struggling,” Dr Charlesworth added.
“We think leadership, the quality of leadership and management, good data to understand what those barriers are [to diagnosis], and the freedom to act and innovate, to think about why it is that we're not being able to reach people [and] not getting that early diagnosis. Those are all really critical factors. So it is possible that in many parts of the country, there are outstanding individual organisations existing side by side with large numbers of potentially avoidable deaths.”
The Health Foundation report calls for changes such as releasing the NHS from unnecessary regulation, reporting and compliance tasks, as well as establishing a national “test-and-learn” approach to scaling up things that could improve productivity, for example through the use of artificial intelligence (AI).
Researchers noted that increasing NHS productivity is “sometimes… seen as exhorting hard-working staff to work even harder, in a system already under considerable strain” and this must be challenged.
They added: “At its heart, productivity means achieving better health outcomes from the resources available.”
The government has set a target of 2 per cent annual productivity growth in the NHS following a slump during the pandemic, and hospitals are currently surpassing this at 3.5 per cent – though there is concern that is not sustainable.
The report said current issues threatening productivity include the “constant churn”, including too many targets, and not enough focus on health outcomes.
Researchers also heard from staff how “poor IT wastes clinical time, limited estate and equipment constrains activity, and gaps in administrative support shift additional work onto clinicians”.
“More than half the surgical workforce report theatre access is a major challenge,” they added.
Despite a 44 per cent increase in consultants, the number of inpatients going through the system and coming off the waiting list remained 5 per cent lower in 2025-2026 than in 2015-2016, the study added.
Furthermore, the bill for essential repairs to NHS buildings “is large and growing”, with ageing hospitals and “constrained diagnostic, theatre and bed capacity” affecting how patients move through to be treated and discharged.
While AI offers opportunities, the “NHS has repeatedly struggled to take advantage of the potential offered by technology” in the past, the report added. A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We are already making important progress to realise the productivity gains that are achievable within the NHS, and making sure that patients see the benefit through record numbers of appointments, tests and scans.
“These gains are being driven by many of the things the Health Foundation recommends: smarter use of technology, less reliance on agency staff, and leaner back-office operations. For patients, this means faster treatment, shorter waits, and an NHS that is more accessible in the evenings and at weekends.
“There is much more to do, but we will keep driving progress through our 10 Year Health Plan to deliver better care for patients and better value for taxpayers.”
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