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The CBI commented on a National Audit Office report: Securing the future financial sustainability of the NHS.

Matthew Fell, CBI Director for Competitive Markets, said:

“This report reaffirms that without implementing major change to the delivery of healthcare, the financial pressure on the NHS will only intensify.

“Maintaining good quality healthcare at a time of budgetary constraint will mean changes need to be made to where, and how, people access services.

“Delivering care closer to home can produce better outcomes for patients and savings for the NHS. The use of technology, like interacting with patients through their TVs and equipping healthcare staff with smartphones to improve remote working, can help achieve this.

“Many of these solutions are already being used by charities and private care organisations, so opening up the market to a diversity of providers will help make these innovative solutions more accessible for all patients, while saving the taxpayer money.”

A recent CBI report (link below) said that successfully delivering care closer to the home could provide better, healthier outcomes for patients and help ease NHS budgetary pressures by saving £3.4 billion a year:

Notes to Editors:

The CBI is the UK's leading business organisation, speaking for some 240,000 businesses that together employ around a third of the private sector workforce. With offices across the UK as well as representation in Brussels, Washington, Beijing and Delhi the CBI communicates the British business voice around the world.

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