This morning Allister Heath has written for the Telegraph that the NHS, in its current form, is unsustainable, noting:
“Nothing will ever be enough when it comes to the NHS: it will always need more resources than any government can ever afford. The government is actually being disproportionately generous to health, forcing dramatically deeper cuts elsewhere. […] Britain's tax base is already being sucked dry. Nothing more of substance can be wrung out. The fiscal goose is bald and needs a good break, not another plucking.”
Our Research Director, Alex Wild has made similar arguments:
“Healthcare is obviously going to get more expensive because healthcare inflation is greater than general inflation. And rich countries do often spend more on healthcare as technologies advance and new drugs become available.
And that is an enormous problem for the NHS in its current form.”
It is becoming increasingly obvious that solutions other than ‘throw more money at the problem’ are needed in the case of the NHS. If we want world class healthcare for generations to come then we really do need to find a new way to pay for it.