No-one likes to talk about rationing health services, especially politicians. Yet rationing decisions are necessary in all health systems without limitless budgets, since demand will always exceed supply. The question is: who makes the decision, and on what basis?
A leading health think tank has warned the NHS faces a funding gap of £6 billion a year by 2015. The King’s Fund says that, contrary to George Osborne’s claim the NHS will get an annual real-terms rise of 0.1 per cent, the NHS will in effect face a reduction of more than 1 per cent a year if it is to maintain existing levels of treatment and cover, given changes in the population.
Do health services really justify a ring-fenced budget? Left Foot Forward’s health policy expert Trevor Cheeseman examines the issue.
Labour must define itself by defending a core level of service quality – putting back the National back into the NHS, and a new National Care Service as well.
Under the coalition’s planned NHS reforms GPs could find themselves with serious headaches, with serious pressures on clinical freedom and financial viability.
It has been described as the Coalition’s Charge of the Light Brigade – but now it seems the cavalry are having second thoughts, the cavalry being GPs.
In just a few days, more than 2,000 38 Degrees members have come together to share their stories of what they value about the NHS. They’re concerned about the Coalition’s plans for the health service, including privitisation of services and layoffs of huge numbers of NHS staff.
The British Medical Association in Scotland has told finance secretary, John Swinney to stop being naive and admit that cuts will have to be made to the NHS north of the border.
More details from the NHS white paper are emerging on the extent of marketisation and the role of competition that the coalition is planning to introduce.
Yesterday’s announcement that all 302 Primary Care Trusts in England will be abolished by 2013 with more power given to GPs represents a complete about-turn from the Coalition Agreement of less than two months ago.
