QIPP

The NHS "efficiency savings" is frequently misreported, journalists, MPs and the public don't really know what it is or how big it is. Mistakes are easy to make when reporting it, although you would have thought that an MP would check before talking about the cuts in Parliament (like Nahdim Zahawi who thought that the cuts would occur all in one year).

However, the one organisation you would expect to actually know what the "efficiency savings" cuts are, is the Department of Health. Apparently not.

The page for the documents on QIPP says:

"The quality, innovation, productivity and prevention (QIPP) challenge is our opportunity to prepare the NHS to defend and promote high quality care in a tighter economic climate. We know we have one more year of guaranteed growth in 2010/11, but the NHS needs to be making efficiency savings of £15-£20 billion per year by 2013/14."

Nope. This is a Zahawi error. The £15-£20bn is to total over the period, not the annual "saving".

Of course, this document has now been superseded so that the "efficiency savings" are £20bn over the period 2011/12 to 2014/15. That is, Labour wanted a minimum of £15bn over 3 years and the Conservatives want a minimum of £20bn over 4 years.