Theresa May cracks down on NHS waste as she says almost a third of patients do not need to be in hospital

THERESA May revealed almost a third of patients don’t need to be hospital - as she vowed to crack down on waste in the system.

The PM declared yesterday “at any point in time something like 20-30 per cent of people” in hospital don’t need to be there.

She insisted the ten year plan would cut waste with a focus on spending on patients.

It came as Chancellor Philip Hammond said it was vital NHS bosses must get “the basics right” with more efficient services.

Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth said: “It confirms what a wasteful, bureaucratic disaster it was in the first place.”

An investigation by Good Health previously identified more than £7.6billion potentially being wasted in the NHS every year.

It showed some hospitals were paying twice as much as others for the same loo rolls and wetwipes.

In another report on NHS inefficiencies carried out for the Department of Health, Lord Carter of Coles found most trusts “don’t know what they buy, how much they buy, and what they pay for goods and services”.

It found a staggering £5 billion of more than £55 billion spent annually by acute hospitals could be saved in the next three years.

One orthopaedic surgeon probing efficiency visited 265 hospitals and found some were using artificial hips costing £650 while others used ones that cost £5,000 - despite “no evidence” they were better.