The NHS needs to become more like Tesco and Toyota in order to treat more patients and reduce its debts, according to a report published today.

Findings state that reducing paperwork and speeding up how a patient moves from Accident and Emergency to the operating theatre could improve health services.

The report, called Lean Thinking for the NHS, calls for pioneering techniques from car maker Toyota to be brought into force.

Toyota used a method to redesign services so they have more value for customers, meaning more time is spent on them and less on administrating the business. Tesco also uses the method, which has now been taken up by the RAF and Royal Navy.

The report was commissioned by the NHS Confederation, an independent body for health service organisations, and compiled by the non-profit company Lean Enterprise Academy.

It gives an example of how the process would work in the health service, detailing how the system would weed out excess paperwork and processes as a patient moved from Accident and Emergency to the operating theatre.

Dr Gill Morgan, the head of the NHS Confederation, presented the proposals to health service bosses at the conference in Birmingham.

"Every one organisation, public and private, has major problems with waste and inefficiency," she said. "The NHS can learn from the latest thinking as adopted by the Royal Navy, RAF, Tesco and Toyota."

Bolton Hospitals NHS Trust has been using the method and has seen a reduction of one third in death rates for hip operation patients. The trust has also reduced paperwork in trauma units by 42 per cent, and had a 50 per cent reduction in the amount of space needed by the pathology laboratory.

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