Recommendation 14

According to official ONS measures, long-term productivity gains in the NHS averaged 0.6% a year over the period 1996–97 to 2018–19. But productivity subsequently fell, both before and during the pandemic, and has yet to recover fully. In March 2024, the government announced that the NHS would receive £3.4 billion of capital investment for digital improvements between 2025–26 and 2027–28. As part of these plans, NHSE committed to achieving ambitious average productivity improvements of 2.0% per year through to 2029–30. NHSE’s modelling for the 2023 NHS Long Term Workforce Plan similarly assumes NHS workforce productivity will improve by 1.5% to 2% per year up to 2036–37, again far higher than the long-term average.23