Health leaders urged to ensure NHS savings don't limit innovation and prevention

The UK is founder and home to some of the world’s greatest healthcare innovations, however, there is room for improvement and the opportunity to learn from other successful nations, reports the International Longevity Centre (ILC-UK).

Health leaders are being urged to ensure that the £22 billion savings already asked of the NHS are used to encourage innovation and learn from Australia, Africa, Europe, India and the USA.

The new report, ‘Creating a sustainable 21st century healthcare system’ argues that the NHS should continue to support healthcare innovations to save money in the long-term.

Chief executive of the ILC-UK, Baroness Sally Greengross, commented: “Whilst innovation can save money in the long term, it requires up-front investment. The nature of introducing new or dual systems can mean that for the first few years costs go up and services don’t improve.

“The picture is not as bleak as it may sound, however. Advances in health technology have the potential to significantly influence patient’s access to health care and the way that health care is delivered. Big data can revolutionise the way services are focussed on the individual.

“But for us to maximise the potential we have to create a climate for innovation in the health service. We might also accept that if we are to innovate to reduce costs and improve services over the long term, public and private investment is vital. Government must ensure that the £22 billion savings being asked of the NHS act to stimulate not prevent innovation.”

‘Advances in health technology have the potential to significantly influence patient care’

The NHS has committed to £22 billon efficiency savings between now and 2020. The ILC-UK research reveals how challenging it will be to achieve this without making substantial changes and improvements to healthcare innovation. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) revealed that productivity within the health sector rose by almost one per cent per year between 1979 and 2010.

Creating a sustainable 21st century healthcare system, sponsored by Ernst & Young (EY) is the first in the ILC-UK’s SOS 2020 Health series and highlights how economic and social trends are contributing to the increased cost of global healthcare.

The report details examples of healthcare innovations from across the globe, which could help to save both lives and money if introduced on a wider scale.

In Australia, the ‘Stay on Your Feet’ programme helps to prevent falls among older people by addressing their knowledge, attitudes and behaviour, resulting in a 22 per cent decrease in the number of self-reported falls and a 20 per cent decline in the number of hospitalisations as a result of falls.

The district of Canterbury in New Zealand has hired a team of experts to introduce a ‘one system, one budget’, programme, redesigning care pathways and workflow, reducing the number of admissions to secondary care services and a 20 per cent decrease in nursing home admissions.

Providers of healthcare in South Central Pennsylvania use ‘big data’ to identify ‘super utilisers’ when creating co-ordinated care plans, leading to a 34 per cent decrease in hospital admissions and a savings of equating to savings of $1,242,000 (£800,000) across 138 patients in one year.

Only three per cent of health care budgets are allocated to public health and prevention programmes

Global insurance sector leader for EY, Shaun Crawford, said: “This report has sourced a bank of robust innovative global case studies and innovations as a first step in developing verifiable models to deliver better health outcomes and reduced costs across the world at a time of growing pressure on our health care systems.”

The current UK healthcare system accounts for one third of case studies used in the report, however, more work to share and spread innovation within the UK can be done, allowing the UK to learn from other leading markets.

The report details that 15 million people with long-term health conditions account for 70 per cent of total health and care expenditure in England, although across Europe, only three per cent of health care budgets are allocated to public health and prevention programmes.

Furthermore, the report suggests the NHS works to focus on innovation and prevention to develop and empower health consumers, in order to benefit from big data and achieve significant long-term savings within the healthcare system.

Phase two of the report, is due to be published in 2016 and will detail the impact that applying the leading global innovations, as suggested in the first report, could have on global health savings.