6 May 2026
Over £1 billion in lost productivity - equivalent to approximately 20,000 full-time staff or more than 40 million patient appointments
New research from Apogee highlights how routine inefficiencies across NHS organisations are significantly reducing frontline capacity; in direct conflict with the 10 Year Health Plan for England’s 2% year-on-year productivity increase target.
Using Freedom of Information responses from NHS trusts across the UK, the report finds that staff lose an average of eight minutes per day due to delays in accessing systems, moving information, and communicating with patients. While each delay is minor, combined at scale they create a significant operational challenge adding up to more than 35 million staff hours at a capacity cost of over £1bn.
The findings indicate a growing “productivity gap” within the NHS, as digital systems are widely implemented but do not consistently return time to frontline staff. Three key areas account for the majority of time lost:
- Getting staff to work: Delays in logging into systems and accessing devices cause time loss at the start of shifts. Staff wait an average of over 80 seconds to access a usable desktop, with some delays lasting up to six minutes.
- Moving information: Despite widespread digitisation, workflows still rely on both digital and paper-based processes. Over 1.1 billion pages are printed annually across responding trusts, leading to duplication, delays, and increased administrative burden.
- Reaching patients: Communication challenges continue to affect patient attendance. Approximately 5 million appointments are missed each year, with limited insight into the role of communication failures.
Apogee’s research also highlights a significant lack of visibility across NHS organisations. Many trusts cannot measure the duration of key processes or pinpoint where delays occur, making it difficult to address inefficiencies.
Commenting on the findings, James Clark, CEO at Apogee, said: “We often talk about productivity in the NHS in terms of large-scale transformation programmes, but our research shows that a significant amount of time is still being lost in the small, everyday moments of friction that happen thousands of times a day.
“What’s striking is that this isn’t about a lack of technology. In most cases, systems are already in place, but they don’t work together effectively. Organisations have digitised processes, but not always simplified them — paper became PDF, but the underlying inefficiencies remain.
“The opportunity is to focus on how work actually happens in practice: how staff access systems, how information flows, and how patients are reached. When those processes and experiences are genuinely streamlined and friction-free, that’s when meaningful time can be returned to frontline care.”
The report argues that improving productivity depends less on introducing new technology and more on ensuring existing systems support effective workflows and experiences. Trusts that take a more integrated approach, connecting devices, information, and communication, are already seeing measurable gains in efficiency and patient flow.
Even modest improvements could have a significant impact. Simply reducing everyday friction by 25% could return approximately £250 million in staff time to frontline services each year.
Apogee’s Time Back. Care Forward report outlines a practical approach for NHS organisations: identify where time is lost, eliminate unnecessary steps and delays, and redirect recovered time to patient care.
