SPENDING on healthcare in Britain is rising nearly twice as fast as the amount of care provided, according to the Office of Health Economics.

This suggests that the Government is not getting value for its huge investment. But nobody really knows, because the NHS does not measure its productivity.

In the annual Compendium of Health Statistics, the OHE says that spending on the NHS is rising at an annual rate of about 7 per cent. But “activity” — the healthcare consumed — rose at 3.8 per cent a year from 1999 to 2003, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Some measurements of activity show even smaller increases. The number of consultant treatments increased at 1.1 per cent a year between 1999 and 2003, while attendances at A&E departments increased at 0.5 per cent a year.

These represent only a fraction of NHS activity, however. In his latest report, the Chief Executive of the NHS, Sir Nigel Crisp, uses a different method and estimates a maximum annual growth rate of 2.6 per cent.

However, as John Reid, the Health Secretary, has pointed out, such comparisons can be misleading. Extra prescriptions for statin drugs, which reduce the risk of heart attacks, appear as a cost in the equations. No effort is made to put a figure on the benefits, so if fewer people need heart operations as a result, the NHS appears to be becoming less productive.

The OHE, a body backed by the drug industry, said that the NHS should start measuring the health benefits to patients, as BUPA already does.

“The Government must commit itself to acting on this and to measuring health outcomes” the OHE said. “There is no other way to measure NHS value for money.”

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