NHS is sick but giving it more cash isn’t the right medicine — reform is the answer
Labour's Gordon Brown is calling for another penny on National Insurance in a bid to help the crippling NHS
NOTHING makes Brits more proud than the NHS.
Indeed, opinion polls have shown time and again that the thing which makes us proudest is not the fact that we stood alone against Hitler, or that we abolished the slave trade, or even that we beat the Germans to win the World Cup in 1966, but rather it is our 70-year-old National Health Service.
It is surely right that we are proud of providing free healthcare for everyone in the country, and that people are not left to die because they cannot afford to pay for treatment.
However, every other developed country, apart from the US, offers free healthcare to its people.
Therefore, our devotion to the NHS would seem to be rather odd.
It is even more unusual when you compare the NHS to other healthcare systems around the world.
The NHS consistently ranks towards the bottom for things such as cancer survival and healthcare quality.
It is the Southampton FC of international healthcare systems — not the worst system in the world but certainly no Manchester United or Real Madrid.
Perhaps the quality of the NHS is best summed up by the Guardian, which once wrote: “The only serious black mark against the NHS was its poor record on keeping people alive.”
According to pretty much every political pundit on TV, the solution is simple: More cash. Not a day goes by without calls to increase spending on the NHS.
Such calls normally come from the Labour Party — Gordon Brown was at it again yesterday, calling for another penny on National Insurance.
But they are now being joined by senior figures in the Conservative Party, who are also calling for higher taxes to fund the NHS.
There are also polls that show people are happy to pay more tax for the NHS.
But if you hear all day long that more money is the only way to save lives, of course you will tell a pollster you are happy to cough up.
Especially as Brits are already some of the most charitable people in the world.
The NHS is sick, but throwing more money at it, and increasing taxes to do so, is not the right medicine.
A specific “NHS tax” is a particularly bad idea. If it doesn’t raise enough money then it will have to be topped up by other taxes. If it raises too much, then what? This defeats the object of a special tax for the NHS.
Calling for a tax hike also ignores the fact that people in the UK already pay more tax than they have for decades.
Not only is this damaging to the economy, but it also places pressure on hard-working households.
There is a cost-of-living crisis in the UK, and many ordinary working people are struggling to make ends meet. One of the main culprits of this crisis is taxation. Increasing taxes will only make matters worse.
Simply throwing more money at the NHS is not the solution.
A recent report from the National Audit Office has shown that as spending on the NHS has increased, productivity has gone down.
Scotland provides another example of this. Healthcare spending there is higher but it has longer waiting times for appointments and ambulances than in England.
Last August, the National Director of Clinical Quality and Efficiency of the NHS, Professor Tim Briggs, said: “I do not think at the moment we deserve more money until we put our house in order and make the changes that will improve quality of care.”
He continued: “If you could get the infection rate across the country down to 0.2 per cent just in hip and knee replacements, you’d save the NHS every year £250million to £350million by improving the quality of care.”
Professor Briggs is not the only senior figure to publicly state this.
For example, Sir Mike Richards, the outgoing head of the Care Quality Commission, last year said the NHS does not necessarily need extra funding to improve care and patient safety.
Both Professor Briggs and Sir Mike are right to point out that funding is not necessarily the issue — what matters is how the money is spent.
As Sir Mike put it: “It is absolutely vital that when the NHS gets more money, it uses it wisely.”
Not a day goes by without calls to increase spending on the NHS
John O'Connell
Professor Briggs and Sir Mike have rightly diagnosed the main problem facing the NHS: Inefficiency.
The UK ranks 24th out of 30 high and upper/middle-income countries for the efficiency of health systems.
Not only is the NHS unproductive and inefficient, it also spends the money it is given in a wasteful way.
Although it is good that it is clamping down on prescribing things such as paracetamol, anti-dandruff shampoo and gluten-free quinoa (all of which can be bought much more cheaply at the supermarket), it still wastes a lot of money.
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Last year it wasted £160million on pills which patients didn’t need, £300million on unnecessary admin, another £300million on treating infections after hip and knee operations, and £18million on crutches and wheelchairs which patients failed to return.
There are also differences between the different NHS Trusts in terms of paying for items such as artificial hips, with the trust purchasing the largest number getting the worst deal.
Brits are rightly proud that we provide free healthcare, and that nobody is turned away for lack of funds.
The NHS is in crisis, but increased funding — especially where that is paid for by increasing taxes — is not the answer.
The NHS needs serious reform, not just more money.