Transformation and NHS productivity

A policy options paper for the NHS Productivity Commission

NHS productivity is about converting available resources into better care, outcomes and patient experience.

It depends not only on the quantity of labour, capital and technology available to the service, but on how those inputs are organised, governed and used. Transformation is the system of incentives, rules, accountabilities, decision rights and management capability that determines whether NHS resources are converted into higher productivity and better outcomes.

This working paper, authored independently by expert commissioners for the NHS Productivity Commission, identifies four key problems around competing models of care and improvement. It then sets out the case for change via four shifts the NHS should take, supported by six mutually reinforcing recommendation areas to make it happen.

About the Commission

The Health Foundation launched the NHS Productivity Commission to provide evidence and identify solutions that can drive productivity growth in the NHS in England over the next decade. 

This publication is one of four policy options papers each exploring a key driver of productivity: workforce, capital, technology and innovation, and transformation.

The papers have been authored independently by expert commissioners and present recommendations for action in each area. These recommendations have informed the Commission's final report, Breaking the cycle, which brings together the key findings from across the programme and sets out the wider system reforms and enabling conditions necessary to deliver lasting improvements in NHS productivity.

These papers and the report reflect the findings and conclusions of the Commission. Neither these papers nor the report necessarily reflect the views or position of the Health Foundation, or the organisations with which the co-chairs and commissioners are associated. Access the Commission’s content.