Reduce waste in the NHS to deliver population health

A cash injection of £32bn to the NHS might be what The BMJ wants,1 but it is not what England needs. The people of England need The BMJ to work with the Department of Health and Social Care and the NHS to identify and disinvest from unnecessary, and often harmful, prescriptions, tests, and treatments on which vast amounts of finite taxpayers’ money are being wasted. In 2017, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development estimated that about 20% of activity in healthcare services added no value; interestingly, 20% of the current NHS budget is over £32bn. These findings are consistent with the health department’s publication Good for You, Good for Us, Good for Everybody, which emphasised that at least 10% of prescribing was pointless.23To support the move away from wasteful activities, The BMJ’s Too Much Medicine (last updated in 2018) ought to be revived. Since this last update, The BMJ…
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