UK needs £102bn boost to NHS and social care, says major report

[Northerner]

Spending on the NHS, social care and public health needs to rise by £102bn over the next decade, funded by big tax rises, to improve Britain’s health in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, an inquiry has said.

The massive funding boost would cut avoidable deaths from cancer and heart disease, tackle glaring health inequalities and rebuild the NHS after Covid exposed weaknesses such as a lack of beds and staff, a team of experts urged ministers on Friday.

The money would come largely from increases in income tax, national insurance and VAT, which evidence suggests the public is willing to pay, according to a four-year commission of inquiry by the London School of Economics and the Lancet medical journal.

“Without concerted action and increased funding we risk the UK falling further behind other high-income countries in health outcomes and life expectancy, continued deterioration in service provision and worsening inequalities, increased reliance on private funding and an NHS that is poorly equipped to respond to future major threats to health,” said Dr Michael Anderson of the LSE, the commission’s joint research lead.

UK needs £102bn boost to NHS and social care, says major report

Funding from higher taxes would cut avoidable deaths and improve equality after the Covid pandemic

www.theguardian.com

 

[mikeyB]

Just wait for the government’s response to this. They will claim that their spending plans for the NHS will be £xbn and that this answers the inquiry. It will, of course, be non existent or previously planned spending, which the inquiry was set up to question. They are experts at smoke and mirrors.

You certainly won’t see any new hospital beds being created to build in the slack for the next pandemic, or even the next epidemic. Or any new doctors and nurses to replace those who have left because they are not welcome in England, and even those retiring early because of the stress they were put under during the pandemic.

I discovered where some of the slack is being taken up yesterday. I had a private appointment with the orthopaedic consultant at Fulwood Hospital near Preston. At least half of the post op folk in outpatients were NHS overflow.

These concerns only apply to NHS England, of course. In Scotland, where Johnson constantly spouts about the failings of NHS Scotland, they don’t apply. Nor in Wales, either. Could it be that the Tories have no control over the NHS in those countries?

 

[Lucy Honeychurch]

I'll believe it when I see it!