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The NHS productivity fell in three months to September and was almost 20 percent below its level before the pandemic, causing concern about increasing pressure on public consumption in the UK.
The productivity of health care, the efficiency measure used and capital used to provide NHS services, fell for an annual rate of 2.4 percent in the third quarter of 2024, according to “Development” data published by the National Statistics Office on Monday.
It is estimated to be 18.5 percent below its top peak in the last quarter of 2019, the agency said.
The figures indicate for the first time Filling He informed the three -month health care productivity data and emphasized the challenges that the Government faces as he pushes to cut the time of waiting time for NHS and improvement of the success of the service due to relieved public finances.
In the autumn budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced an increase of £ 22.6 billion in the NHS daily budget for two years and an increase in the capital budget by £ 3.1 billion.
She also set up health services and Whitehall departments 2 -a long goal of productivity in 2025. “Using technology more efficiently and joining services throughout the Government.”
Although higher public service efficiency can facilitate financial pressure, data on Monday suggest that productivity is moving in the opposite direction.
Bart Van ARK, Director General at the Institute of Productivity based in the UK, “said” Despite its increased spending on the public sector, the response to the growth of production was weak in the last two years “and invited the Government to” understand how to use how to use how to use those resources better ”.
The overall productivity of public services fell for an annual rate of 1.4 percent in the third quarter of 2024, and was estimated at 8.4 percent below its level in the fourth quarter of 2019, before Pandemia, Ons said.
However, data on the agency’s productivity are covered with problems and are now marked with “official development statistics” because of the low response rate for the research of the labor market, which is partially based.
Ons said that the data on Monday did not take into account changes in the relative quality of these services because many of these quality factors require data that are not yet available.
Andrew Bailey, Governor Bank of England, said on Thursday that he could not say to what extent the fall of the measured productivity of the “Real Phenomenon” public sector.
At a press conference, he warned of the draw of any “strong conclusions” about the productivity state in the public sector “because there are many conventions about how these things are measured.”
Nevertheless, the weak effect of productivity in the UK has caused concern among policy creators because it reduces the capacity of the economy for the production of goods and services and could retain inflation high.
In terms of the future path of interest rates, the growth of productivity “is important because it is a speed limit for the economy in terms of supply,” said Clare Lombardelli, a BOE deputy Governor, at a press conference on Thursday.
Productivity growth is important for everything because “the only way to increase the actual revenues in the long run,” she added.
