Final Report > Chapter 4: The Changing NHS 1984 - 1995 > A series of initiatives > Efficiency initiatives

Efficiency initiatives

6 During the 1980s the Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS) introduced a series of efficiency initiatives which focused on improving and extending the services of the NHS without increasing costs. They included: efficiency savings, under the name of `cost improvement programmes' which required health authorities to generate annual efficiency savings of 0.2% to 0.5%; Rayner scrutinies, [3] investigations carried out by managers in the NHS into the efficiency of such areas as transport, and residential accommodation for NHS staff; the development of performance indicators, allowing health authorities to compare their performance against others in areas such as finance and manpower (but not, significantly, the quality of care); competitive tendering in such areas as laundry and domestic services; and income generation involving such schemes as income from private patients and car-parking charges.

Footnotes

[3] On the model of the scrutinies of the civil service conducted by Sir Derek Rayner