This article explains the alternative, non-monetary values we've given to the productivity opportunities that you'll find in the new version of the Model Hospital at https://model.nhs.uk/opportunities.

For each opportunity we have expressed the estimated productivity gains in terms of units of clinical activity or numbers of additional staff, as well as cash amounts.

This is to help you visualise how much more clinical output you could potentially achieve, while spending the same amount, if you improved your productivity. Each opportunity explains whether your trust’s potential improvement is in comparison to all trusts nationally, or to a particular group of your peers, or is a trust-specific target.

For many clinical service lines, we have chosen one of the most frequently-reported activities for that specialty, using the HRG codes in Reference Costs. Each unit represents the national average (mean) cost of that activity, including adjustments for market forces factors.

For opportunities in other areas, we’ve shown you how many more registered nurses you could employ if you improved productivity while maintaining the same level of expenditure. 

These examples are just a different way to illustrate the potential difference in productivity and it is up to trusts to uncover the reasons for variations, work out whether they are warranted or not, and realise any benefits in the way that provides the best outcomes for patients.

Table of units of clinical output for opportunities

This table provides the exact codes we've used, to help you understand how we've calculated the equivalent units for each opportunity. They're all taken from 2017/18 Reference Costs.

For other opportunities not in this table, we have used the average cost of a registered nurse. This is calculated used the metric Average Staff Cost - Registered Nursing & Midwifery Staff, found in the trust-level Nursing & Midwifery section of the Model Hospital. The value used for 2017/18 is £43,877.