NHS Driving Decline in Public Sector Productivity
11th February 2025
Public sector productivity fell again last year, according to figures that dealt a blow to ministers’ hopes of a more efficient state.
Rising numbers of staff are not being matched by results and the state remains 8.4 per cent below its pre-pandemic levels of productivity, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The NHS has driven declining efficiency and remains 18.5 per cent less productive than before the Covid lockdown, the figures suggest.
However, NHS England said that figures it had calculated showed that the service had improved, leaving ministers unclear whether the most expensive and politically significant public service will actually make best use of a £22 billion budget boost.
You will never see a government statistic that shows that government is worse. They have no incentive to do that, and every incentive to do the opposite. “We’re doing great here! Everything is looking up!” Britain’s NHS is the poster child for dysfunctional government services, of which Obamacare is a pale reflection. Medicare in this country is only tolerable because it doesn’t provide health care, it merely pays for it (which is bad enough).
An example of NHS failure is here: Pensioner dies after refusing A&E trip due to agonising wait with broken back