(Bloomberg) -- Britain’s National Health Service is producing 5.5% less bang for each taxpayer buck than before the pandemic, according to official data, ramping up pressure on Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt to improve the efficiency of public services. 

Across the public sector as a whole, productivity in 2022 was 0.3% lower than in 2019, according to figures released Thursday by the Office for National Statistics. Efficiency in the NHS has been particularly poor, puzzling economists as a spate of doctor hiring and increased funding has failed to deliver treatment for more patients.

The report came as the Institute for Fiscal Studies, an independent research group, rebuffed claims from NHS England Chief Executive Amanda Pritchard that the productivity challenge in the NHS was being “misunderstood.”

“Funding and staffing numbers for NHS hospitals have increased sharply, but the number of patients being treated has not increased to anything like the same degree,” said IFS Research Economist Max Warner. “Accounting for an array of other factors – some outside the NHS’s control – might explain part of the apparent productivity shortfall. But there remains a shortfall nonetheless.”

The data from the ONS will turn up the heat on Hunt to resolve the UK’s public sector productivity puzzle. The issue is rising up the political agenda with the UK economy set to stagnate — or even dip into a recession — in the run-up to the next election.

Earlier this year the Chancellor announced a review of the public sector, promising to focus on “unnecessary” administrative tasks and use of innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence. 

“Our innovators, job creators, entrepreneurs and risk takers have bounced back but the public sector is still feelings the effects of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic,” Hunt said in a speech in June. 

Public service productivity had experienced a shallow decline between 1997 and 2020, and then picked up in 2019. The Covid-19 pandemic caused a steep drop in 2020, before growth rallied back to 15.1% and 2.2% in the following two years respectively, according to ONS estimates. 

Healthcare is the largest service area included in the productivity measures. Last year, the IFS drew attention to how increased staff hires were not leading to improved treatment rates for patients. 

Pritchard, speaking to Parliament’s Health and Social Care Select Committee earlier this week, suggested there might be “a misunderstanding at the moment of the state of productivity in the NHS” and that these issues were being exaggerated.

But in a briefing Friday, the IFS stuck by its assessment. 

“The point is that if there are more staff, or staff are working more hours, but the system is providing less care, then something appears to be going wrong,” the briefing note read. 

Its researchers admitted there may be some issues with the way productivity is measured, but this failed to explain the full picture.

Economists have developed several theories as to why the NHS may be less efficient than before the pandemic, ranging from staff burn-out to sicker patients. Hunt’s review into the public sector is ongoing.

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