Health service waste under fire as funds increase

The NHS is losing hundreds of millions of pounds a year, that could be spent on improved patient care, through clinical and financial mismanagement, two reports disclosed yesterday.

The NHS is losing hundreds of millions of pounds a year, that could be spent on improved patient care, through clinical and financial mismanagement, two reports disclosed yesterday.

As the row about exactly what the Prime Minister did or did not promise for the future funding of the NHS continued, new evidence that the NHS is squandering its scarce resources will increase pressure on ministers to tighten control. Fraud, clinical negligence and hospital infections are undermining a service that is already stretched to the limit.

Poor hygiene in hospitals contributes to one in 10 patients contracting an infection which costs the NHS in England £1bn a year to treat, the Public Health Laboratory Service said. Better infection control procedures, backed by additional resources, could yield significant savings.

The first annual report from the laboratory service's surveillance scheme says that victims take two-and-a-half times longer to get well than people who become ill at home or work.

In a separate report on financial management of the NHS, the Commons Public Accounts Committee said hundreds of millions of pounds is lost to fraud and clinical negligence. An estimated £150m is lost on prescription fraud and the 15,000 cases of clinical negligence that are pending could cost another £2.8bn.

David Davis, the committee's chairman, said the flu outbreak has exposed the pressures on the NHS. There are big differences in levels of efficiency between health bodies and if every trust raised its performance to the standard of the best, the costs of individual treatments would be reduced by 12 per cent, he said.

"Improving efficiency and financial management and reducing fraud and clinical negligence would release precious resources that could be directed towards patient care."

The reports were published as speculation mounted over the exact meaning of Tony Blair's pledge on Sunday to raise spending on the health service. In an interview on the BBC programme Breakfast with Frost, the Prime Minister said: "At the end five years our health service spending will be up to the average of the European Union."

Dr Ian Bogle, the chairman of the British Medical Association, wrote to Mr Blair yesterday asking for "the precise figures on which this commitment is based".