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Hi Anon 6:38,

Just to clarify, no, it's certainly not all recurring savings, but we don't know at the moment what proportion. An audit commission review of the 2010-11 year found that trusts and PCTs achieved 81% of planned savings, and of those achieved 23% were achieved non-recurrently.

The past financial year was a lot more challenging for trusts, so it would be unsurprising if a larger proportion of the savings were non-recurrent, but we don't know that at the moment.

In terms of the "how does that make four years?" question, the DH only started formally reporting on/tracking "qipp savings" in its financial reporting in 2011-12, and will do so until 2015. The QIPP plans were drawn up mid-2009, but I don't think the plan actually kicked in in-year. The original plan was for a 2014 deadline, but that was pushed back in 2010: https://www.hsj.co.uk/news/finance/nhs-given-another-year-to-hit-20bn-savings-target/5023235.article.

In terms of future savings, yep, the NHS is almost certainly going to need to continue to make savings of at least the same order of magnitude in the years after QIPP, unless the country's economic fortunes turn around pretty dramatically. Don't need DN to tell you that, only need to look at the Treasury's plans for fiscal contraction in the 2 years after 2015, or indeed the OBR's long-term forecasts.