Professor Tim Briggs has said the NHS must stop “leaking” £1.4bn to private providers to ensure its survival.
Professor Briggs, who is leading the Getting It Right First Time programme to reduce unwarranted variation in the NHS, said today the service must become more competitive by reducing unwarranted variation, improving efficiency and driving up care standards.
‘We have to do things differently and we don’t have a lot of time,’ Tim Briggs said
He said: “£1.4bn of our money, taxpayers’ money, which could be used in the NHS is being invested in ‘any qualified provider’.
“We have to compete for that work and get it back to the NHS. That is the way we are going to be solvent.
“We have allowed money to leak away and we have to drag that back into the NHS to make it sustainable.”
Professor Briggs, a leading consultant orthopaedic surgeon, was speaking at a King’s Fund event in London to launch its report into GIRFT, which now covers more than 30 medical and surgical specialties…. read more
