NHS spent £100 million on post last year

Telegraph

5 hours ago

The NHS spent at least £102 million on posting letters last year despite pledging to go digital because of unreliable deliveries.
The amount spent on sending mail, which can regularly arrive late and cause missed appointments, was up by 12.5 per cent on the year before, according to new research by the Taxpayers' Alliance.
The research results have been released as the health service is about to get £30 billion more over three years in Rachel Reeves's spending review this week, to the detriment of other public services.
They also revealed the NHS could make major savings in electricity and laundry costs, as well as reducing the eight million missed appointments that occur each year.
The Telegraph previously revealed that the Royal Mail was introducing a new NHS barcode to cut late deliveries and the risk of missed appointments.
But health officials have also pledged to do more to communicate with patients online and through the NHS app.
Last week, the Department of Health said the app would become the default method of communication for patients seeking appointment reminders, screening invitations and test results as part of a major investment that would mean 50 million fewer letters are posted each year.
The research from the Taxpayers' Alliance found that at least £102 million was spent in 2023-24 across 120 NHS hospital trusts, an average of £850,000 each.
The researchers said this was a 'growing expense' with the costs rising by 12.5 per cent on the £90.3 million spent in 2022-23.
Previous research found that as many as one in four of the eight million appointments that patients miss each year were because letters to patients arrived after the date of the planned appointment.
Simon Cook, a research fellow of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said the public 'expect the NHS to double down on cutting any inefficient and wasteful expenditure'.
'With the health service facing financial pressures, there are huge savings to be made through simple, common sense changes,' he said.
'Ministers must recognise that sometimes the biggest savings don't always require major reforms, just the will to act.'
The research paper also found that the NHS could save more than £150 million on electricity costs if it utilised its buying power.
It said the average cost of electricity across NHS trusts in England was 30.5p per kWh in 2023-24, which was 'typically the rate that medium-sized businesses pay'.
£154m potential laundry savings
The NHS is the biggest single employer in Europe and 'if every NHS trust paid the average extra-large non-domestic consumer price of 22.6p, the saving would amount to £154 million in 2023-24,' the researchers said.
The researchers also found significant discrepancies across the country in the amount being spent on laundry.
While the NHS spent £270 million to launder 555 million items at an average cost of 48.7p per item, some areas achieved lower costs of 25p per item, while others spent £1.20.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: 'This government inherited a broken NHS with wasteful spending, in desperate need of reform.
'Yesterday, we announced major investment in the NHS app to turbocharge our digital revolution – saving hundreds of millions in taxpayers' money spent on stamps and envelopes, and enabling push notifications and reminders to help cut missed appointments. We are also cutting NHS energy bills through solar power and renewable energy – delivering further savings for the taxpayer.
'Through our Plan for Change, we are reforming the NHS to ensure that every penny is spent on what matters most.'
An NHS England spokesman said: 'Millions of patients are already receiving appointment reminders, screening invitations, and test results direct to their smartphones from the NHS, saving millions of pounds, avoiding the need for letters and freeing-up resources for patient care.
'People without access to smartphones and elderly patients will still receive messages through traditional routes such as letters to ensure they don't miss important information.
'The NHS is continually exploring ways to achieve the best possible value for taxpayers, including making targeted investment in technologies that can enable us to optimise our resources and boost productivity.'