The aims of the NHS
ambitious NHS spending plans are used as a propaganda tool during elections. 6 However, how far have these promised increases in funding contributed to fulfilling the primary aims of the NHS?
The NHS is funded primarily through general taxation, as well as through National Insurance and patient charges. The amount of funding that the NHS receives in a given year is formulated by central government. 7 There has been a recurring debate between Labour and the Conservatives about levels of funding. Labour claims that the
Conservatives have made severe cuts and the Conservatives claims that they are pouring more cash in than ever before. Who are we supposed to believe? The graph (figure 1) aims to address this uncertainty. Since 2008 recession and 2010 coalition, funding the has been on the decline each year. There have been
Figure 1: NHS spending as a percentage of GDP: 1950 – 2020
further cash-injection pledges, but these are not enough to address the gap in funding that has been exposed. Blaming the recession for the decrease in funding may not be an entirely valid excuse. The graph, clearly, shows that after the recession in the early 1990s that funding was on the rise soon after. However, this was not the case in the aftermath of the 2008 recession. This is a complex issue and one could argue that the 2008 recession was worse than previous ones. Nevertheless, the graph highlights the fluctuations in funding as a percentage of GDP and encapsulates the sense of inconsistency in funding. It is hard to draw a causal relationship between A&E waiting times and levels of funding from this research, but one must acknowledge that the percentage of patients treated in 4 hours or less has been on the decline over the last decade to, recently (2018/19), 77.2% from97.6% in 2008/9. 8 The guidelines are that at least 95% of patients in A&E must be seen within four hours. This decrease in funding can have knock-on effects within the NHS and could lead to a decrease in availability of services at a primary level, leading tomore people attending A&E and greater waiting times. Primary research supports this. Therefore, to give the NHS and its staff a pragmatic chance in achieving this guideline for an ageing population, it would make sense for the government to overturn the cuts and see a continuation of the
6 (Gentchev, 28th November 2019) 7 (The King's Fund, 2019) 8 (QualityWatch, 2019)
43
Made with FlippingBook Digital Publishing Software