Rishi Sunak admits NHS faces ‘long-term challenges’ after damning report – UK politics live

PM likely to be questioned during Nottingham visit on King’s Fund report that says NHS is ‘more a laggard than a leader’

Good morning. There are few institutions in the UK as loved and respected as the NHS. This is much discussed. But far less attention is given to a more unpalatable truth, which is that by international standards, the NHS is rather mediocre. It scores very well on equity (because it is funded by general taxation, and free at the point of use), but in terms of keeping people alive, it is “more of a laggard than a leader” on many measures, according to a report today from the King’s Fund, a health thinktank.

The King’s Fund has compared health systems in 19 wealthy countries. Here is an extract from its summary.

The UK has below-average health spending per person compared to peer countries. Health spending as a share of GDP (gross domestic product) was just below average in 2019 but rose to just above average in 2020 (the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, which of course had a significant impact on the UK’s economic performance and spending on health services). The UK lags behind other countries in its capital investment, and has substantially fewer key physical resources than many of its peers, including CT and MRI scanners and hospital beds. The UK has strikingly low levels of key clinical staff, including doctors and nurses, and is heavily reliant on foreign-trained staff. Remuneration for some clinical staff groups also appears to be less competitive in the UK than in peer countries …

People in the UK receive relatively good protection from some of the catastrophic costs of falling ill. Relatively few core NHS services are charged for and certain population groups are exempt from charges. But financial protection is weaker for some services, such as dental care, and there is growing concern that people in the UK may be forced to choose between funding their own care or enduring longer waits for treatment.

We approach the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the NHS, I want to ensure that it continues to thrive for the next 75 years and beyond.

And while we focus on cutting waiting lists in the short term, we must also look to tackle some of the long-term challenges facing the NHS, including lung cancer which costs 35,000 lives every year. Rolling out screening to high-risk 55-74 year olds will save lives by detecting up to 9,000 lung cancers a year at an early stage.