Cutting hospital staff won’t help productivity, says ICB chief

The leader of an integrated care board has dismissed a “narrative” that the NHS can become more productive by cutting hospital staff numbers.

West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board CEO Rob Webster said a whole “system response” was required to improve productivity. 

Mr Webster made his comments at HSJ’s Patient Safety Congress in Manchester after being asked what his message was to organisations facing increasing demands to cut spending and staffing numbers safely.

He said: “This narrative about ‘the NHS is not productive, there’s too many staff in hospitals, [and] therefore cut staff in hospitals, you’re more productive’, it’s not true.”

After the session on Monday, he told HSJ: “Just cutting staff in hospitals will not in itself make us more productive. There needs to be a system response that improves flow and has a strong focus on safety and quality.

“We also need a much more sophisticated plan for the future, with an eye on the medium term, where our hospitals are supported by all partners to be productive and where people themselves are much better supported in communities.”

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Source: HSJ, 17 September 2024