NHS Property Services saves £250 million for NHS over last five years

NHS Property Services saves £250 million for NHS over last five years

NHS Property Services revealed this week that through its cost transformation programme, launched in 2017, it has delivered a quarter of a billion pounds-worth of cost savings to the NHS across 2,000 initiatives.

With additional spend on the COVID-19 pandemic, an ageing population, and a backlog of more than six million patients waiting for elective care, this announcement comes at a time when funding has never been so essential for the health service. These savings will be reinvested directly back into the NHS and could equate to providing enough funding to build around 68 new GP surgeries or pay the annual salaries of around 3,200 GPs.

Mark Smith, Chief Finance Officer for the government-owned company, which aims to help around 7,000 customers across the NHS get the most from their estate, announced the news.

He said: “We established the cost transformation programme at NHSPS in 2017 to drive, monitor and report on the progress of our savings targets by tracking and reporting on more than 2,000 lines of activity, including everything from introducing strategic in-sourcing to reducing waste collections.

“I’m pleased to announce that over the last five years, the programme has enabled us to exceed our ambitious target of £176m, delivering a total of £250m cost savings to our NHS partners and customers. This is a fantastic achievement, and the result of true successful collaboration and renewed focus right across our organisation which has enabled us to keep costs to our colleagues in the NHS broadly flat, offsetting some of the inflationary pressures.”

NHSPS’ financial teams will continue to evolve the programme, with the next steps focused on driving a more holistic view of the value they can provide to customers through their approach to sustainability - which you can read more about in their recently published Green Plan – as well as looking at further increased efficiencies and income generation.

Mark added: “I’m looking forward to continuing to put our customers at the heart of everything we do, including driving and transforming the value we can offer them over the coming months and years, and working with our fantastic NHSPS colleagues who are clearly leading the way with delivering savings and increasing efficiencies for our customers across the country.”

About NHSPS

We are a government-owned company which exists to help the NHS get the most from its estate and ensure that it is fit for purpose so that healthcare professionals can deliver excellent patient care. Our portfolio is one of the largest in the UK, comprising 2755 properties with 7,000 tenants across England. At a total value of more than £3bn, this represents about 12% of the total NHS estate. Our properties range from listed buildings through to state-of-the-art integrated health campuses.