The ONS statistics reveal healthcare productivity was 2.4% lower in the quarter ending September 2024 year-on-year. Productivity grew by 0.2% on the previous quarter following a fall of 0.2% in Q2 2024.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: ‘Today's ONS report confirms that patients are paying more but getting less. We need to get back to basics and start focusing on what matters most to patients.'

The DHSC said Government reforms will ‘squeeze better value out of every penny going into the NHS', adding: ‘We have set an extremely tough productivity and efficiency target for the NHS next year, and we are giving them the tools to hit it. We are bringing our analogue NHS into the digital age, cutting out millions of pointless and missed appointments, and holding the NHS to account through league tables.'

NHS England's projections of annual productivity gains of 2% by 2028-29 have been described as ‘unconvincingly optimistic' by the Public Accounts Committee.

An NHS spokesperson said: ‘The NHS recognises that there are different methods for working out public sector productivity and we will continue to work with the ONS to ensure all figures used are as accurate as possible.

‘While our latest estimates show acute productivity has reached 2.4% in the first seven months of 2024/25 compared to the same period last year, there is a lot more work to do to make further improvements – we will be ruthlessly focused on this over the next year, including by having a sharp focus on slashing agency spend, improving retention of staff and using the latest technology to be more efficient.'

Liberal Democrat health and social care spokesperson Helen Morgan, said: ‘Patients cannot afford any more dither and delay on major reforms but that is what ministers have condemned them to.'