NHS inefficiency to drive uptake of private medical cover?

News that NHS inefficiency could be cutting up to three and a half years from the life expectancy of people in the UK could see more people take out private medical cover.

A new report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has highlighted the benefits that improved efficiency in health services could bring, suggesting they could be greater than those from simply spending more money on public healthcare.

Researchers analysed health services across all 29 OECD member states and reported that the UK had the seventh most inefficient overall, finding the NHS paid higher salaries yet had fewer doctors compared to many other wealthy nations.

Solving these inefficiencies could see life expectancy in the UK increase by two and a half years for women and three and a half years for men, it said.

According to the report, this would have a much greater impact than simply boosting spending.

It estimated that if all countries were to become as efficient as the best performers, life expectancy at birth could be raised by more than two years on average across the OECD area.

However, a ten per cent increase in health care spending would only increase life expectancy by three to four months if inefficiency remains unchanged.

The news comes the same week as the publication of a report by Dr Foster which assessed 147 hospital trusts in England, finding that 19 of them had patient death rates greater than expected over the past year.

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