Department of Health : progress in making NHS efficiency savings, thirty-ninth report of session 2012-13, report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence

The NHS has achieved its financial savings target, but this has in large part come from freezing wages and there is concern that other savings are being achieved by rationing patients' access to certain treatments.

These include cataract surgery and hip and knee replacements.

These procedures are described as being 'of low clinical value' but they can make a real difference to a patient's quality of life.

Furthermore, the finances of some trusts are fragile, and there is a risk they may resort to simple cost-cutting rather than finding genuine efficiency savings.

The NHS must fundamentally change the way that healthcare is provided to secure the level of savings needed in the future, for example by moving services out of hospitals and into the community.

The Committee is not satisfied that the Department and the NHS Commissioning Board is doing enough to help the NHS transform services.

Local people are understandably resistant when proposals are made to close their local hospital or reduce the range of services it provides. It is down to the Department to make a clear case for change from the patient's point of view, demonstrating the benefits in terms of the quality and safety of care as well as cost savings.

Although the Department reported that the NHS made savings in 2011-12 of GBP5.8 billion, virtually all of that year's forecast of GBP5.9 billion, that data is not fully reliable.

Only 60% of the savings it claimed to have made during 2011-12 could be substantiated using national data