High quality care for all NHS Next Stage Review - Antibiotic Action

High Quality Care For All – NHS Next Stage Review Final Report3127. The Wanless Report of 2002 madethe case for additional investment inthe NHS, to which the Governmenthas responded. 52 The NHS is nowfunded at close to the EU average. 53In 2009/10, the NHS budget willexceed £100 billion. The NHS hasthe financial resources it needs.their chances of poor health anddependency on the NHS. The answerto the challenges the NHS faces istherefore to focus on improving thequality of care it provides.28. However, the NHS must usethese resources well. Increasingexpectations, an ageing population,a rise in lifestyle disease and the costof new treatments will all imposegreater costs.29. The NHS must respond by improvingthe quality of care it provides. Thisis because the evidence shows that,in general, higher quality care worksout better for patients and thetaxpayer. For instance, day surgeryfor cataracts delivers the highestquality of care with no admission tohospital. 54 High quality care is safe,meaning no avoidable healthcareassociated infections. This is obviouslybetter for patients and also reducesthe need for costly post-infectionrecovery in hospital. Finally, highquality care involves giving thepatient more control over theircare, including information to makehealthy choices, which will reduce52 Wanless, Securing our Future Health (2002).53 In 2008 the UK is expected to spend 9.0% ofits GDP on health, compared with an averageof 9.5% amongst the 15 pre-enlargementEU members.54 Cataract extraction was one of a “basket” of25 procedures recommended by the AuditCommission in 2001 as suitable for day surgery.Day surgery for cataract removal is less thantwo thirds of the cost of doing it as an inpatientprocedure (RCI 2005).