Sign in
News

New analysis from Q and the Health Foundation on how improvement can help NHS productivity

Our Managing Director Penny Pereira, together with Bryan Jones, Senior Improvement Fellow at the Health Foundation, have identified key actions for developing an approach to productivity.

The new analysis from Q and the Health Foundation calls for a new productivity narrative and identifies five key actions for policymakers and practice leaders to develop a more holistic, quality-focused approach to productivity.

Productivity was a focus of the Darzi review on NHS performance published earlier this year. The review emphasised that that current situation is not sustainable and system-wide change is needed. The government has promised to make productivity a central to the 10 Year Health Plan. This concern isn’t limited to England; productivity and performance are the focus of an advisory group in Wales and a taskforce in Ireland, and similar concerns about NHS productivity have been raised in Scotland.

It is important to consider quality as well as quantity when measuring productivity. Proposed solutions need to go beyond a way to do more with less.

Our new analysis calls for a new productivity narrative. One that sees productivity gains not just as a way to meet finance-driven goals but as enabling sustainable improvements in care quality. As part of the 10 Year Health Plan, the NHS should develop a transformation strategy integrating quality and productivity reform agendas, and learning from existing improvement approaches, to drive success. This will help ensure sustained, coherent, and balanced change across the system. 

Penny and Bryan identify five key actions for policymakers and practice leaders to develop a more holistic, quality-focused approach to productivity.

  1. Develop a productivity narrative that resonates across all levels of health care, addresses the priorities of staff and patients, and emphasises the connection between productivity and quality of care. 
  2. Build awareness of existing improvement approaches that can drive success and ensure their systematic application in healthcare settings. Our Cross-System Improvement Framework helps leaders to plan and deliver work more holistically. 
  3. Ensure meaningful opportunities for wide-scale collaboration and learning between those leading and those supporting improvement. 
  4. Identify the key productivity and quality challenges that can be most effectively addressed through improvement approaches and methods. 
  5. Ensure organisation- and system-level change strategies have a simultaneous and sustained focus on improving quality and productivity. 
Read the full analysis How improvement can help NHS productivity

See more news articles

Discover more

The Health Foundation

Q is led by the Health Foundation and supported by partners across the UK and Ireland

email hidden; JavaScript is required
Q, The Health Foundation, 8 Salisbury Square, London EC4Y 8AP
© 2025 The Health Foundation
Website: William Joseph