NHS bosses urged to ‘get a grip’ as report finds health service falling behind peers
NHS leaders have been urged to “get a grip on budgets” as researchers suggested Britain’s health service was falling behind comparable nations.
Health think tank the King’s Fund found the UK had “below-average health spending per person” and “lags behind other countries in its capital investment”.
And hospitals have “substantially fewer key physical resources” like beds, CT and MRI scanners, the report found, while Brits’ earlier deaths were linked to NHS underinvestment.
‘Get a grip’
Commenting, independent MP for Hackney North Diane Abbott said: “The government is still not investing properly in the NHS, which is why we have staff shortages, surging waiting lists, people leaving and strikes.”
But John O’Connell, chief executive of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, hit back, saying: “Despite funding increases year after year, standards in the NHS continue to suffer.
“Taxpayers fork out huge sums for a well-run health service, but they are fed up of the unacceptable levels of waste and mismanagement that come with it.
“Health bosses should get a grip on budgets and ensure funds are focused on the frontline.”
Sean Phillips, head of health and social care at the right-of-centre think tank Policy Exchange, said: “There’s no doubt greater resource can stimulate improvements to services, but in a time of significant fiscal constraint, we will have to be selective.
“If we want to move from ‘middle of the pack’ to ‘high-flyer’, there will have to be an openness to doing things differently”.
‘Fit for the future’
It came as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak used an announcement of a national lung cancer screening pilot scheme to flesh out how he will deliver his pledge to cut NHS waiting lists.
Addressing the King’s Fund report, Sunak said it was “not by any means where we should be”, adding: “I want to make sure that the NHS is fit for the future.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has also made building an NHS fit for the future one of his five missions, should his party be elected into government.
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting and Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election candidate Danny Beales also pledged Labour would deliver a new “state of the art” hospital in Hillingdon within the first term in government while on a visit to the constituency.