‘NHS needs an extra £2,000 per household to get back on track’

THE NHS will need an extra £2,000 a year from every household in order to function properly, experts have said.

A joint report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and the Health Foundation found there was “no more room” to increase health spending by taking from other Government budgets and concluded that “taxes will have to rise”.

The new analysis of what the NHS needs to cope with future demands predicts that UK spending on healthcare will have to rise by an average 3.3 per cent a year over the next 15 years just to maintain NHS provision at its current levels.

But in order to get the health service back on track from its currently missed targets, to modernise and meet the needs of an ageing population, funding increases of 4 per cent a year would be required over the next 15 years.

Public satisfaction with the NHS has steadily improved over the two decades as core measures of performance, such as waiting times for referrals, got lower, however these positive trends are now beginning to reverse, according to the report’s authors. “The implication is clear: in the medium term, if we want even to maintain health and social care provision at current levels, taxes will have to rise,” they wrote.

The report states that relying solely on taxation to pay for a “modernised NHS” would increase the UK tax burden as a share of GDP to “historically high levels”. Funding these projected increases in health spending through the tax system would require taxes to rise by between 1.6 and 2.6 per cent of GDP – the equivalent of between £1,200 and £2,000 per household per year within 15 years.

The analysis found that by 2033-34, there would be 4.4 million more people in the UK aged 65 and over.

Paul Johnson, director of the IFS and one of the authors, said: “We are finally coming face-to-face with one of the biggest choices in a generation. If we are to have a health and social care system which meets our needs and aspirations, we will have to pay a lot more for it over the next 15 years. This time we won’t be able to rely on cutting spending elsewhere.”

A Department for Health and Social Care spokesman said: “The Prime Minister and Health and Social Care Secretary have committed to a long-term plan with a sustainable multiyear settlement for the NHS to help it manage growing patient demand, which will be agreed with NHS leaders, clinicians, and health experts.”