NHS Productivity: Reduction in Emergency Admissions Does Not Mean Decline in Performance.

center dot Related content One would expect that the Institute of Fiscal Studies would be able to produce authoritative analysis of NHS productivity. In Vize's article on the subject,1 however, he highlights the institute's analysis which gives a reduction in the number of emergency admissions as an example of a decline in performance.2 In clinical practice, emergency admissions are recognised to result from a lack of timely diagnosis or potentially avoidable complications of treatment, to give two prominent examples. Avoidance of emergency admissions is an aspiration of an improving service. Reducing their numbers is a measure of success.