Shrinking the state: The fate of the NHS and social care

摘要

The National Health Service (NHS) and local government-funded social care services are being challenged financially like never before. Real expenditure on the NHS has increased by less than 1% a year since 2010, and from 2018 there is no planned increase at all. In the face of ever-increasing demand, care quality is unavoidably being eroded. In an attempt to hide extensive failures to meet them, waiting time targets for elective surgery and emergency care are being ‘reset’ with more flexibility. Patient discharges are increasingly being delayed by declining social care provision. How can we explain the government’s persistent reluctance to address funding shortages, and are policy responses likely to sustain patient care?