In little over a month, the NHS will turn 70. Not long after that, the Government is expected to publish a green paper on health and social care.
The public is becoming evermore aware about the state of the health and care system, while journalists, politicians and commentators have been raising their voices louder each week.
All the while, the think-tanks are capitalising on this potentially game-changing moment as, one by one, they publish damning reports, piling increasing pressure on the Government to be radical.
The latest, by the influential Health Foundation and Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think-tanks, follows on from Lord Darzi’s recent review by proposing mammoth increases in health and care spending funded through increased taxation.
‘We will need consensus both on the value of an effective health and social care system and on how to raise revenue to fund it as the economy grows,’ the think-tanks say. ‘We can’t have it for free. If we are to raise spending… then taxes will have to rise.’
To continue reading visit The MJ.
