The UK spent around a fifth less on average than other European countries on day-to-day health care costs over the last decade, a new study has revealed.
The UK’s total healthcare budget was £187bn per year, on average, between 2010 and 2019. According to the charity the Health Foundation, however, if UK spending per person had matched the average across the EU14, then total UK spending per year would have been £227bn – a difference of £40bn more on average every year.
The charity also found that in every year between 2010 and 2019 the UK would have had to spend an additional £73bn more to match Germany’s spending per person (39% extra) and an additional £40bn extra every year (21% extra) to match France.
Just four countries – Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece – in the EU14 spent less per person than the UK over the same period.
Anita Charlesworth, director of research and the REAL Centre at the Health Foundation, said: ‘As the Government wrestles with how to put the public finances on a sustainable footing, health spending is under the spotlight as it accounts for almost a third of overall public service spending.
‘With seven million people on NHS waiting lists, staffing shortages, ambulance response times falling, over-crowded A&E departments and patients struggling to access general practice and mental health, the NHS is arguing it needs more, not less, funding. The NHS’s own analysis suggests there is a gap of £6-7bn between current funding and the immediate pressures on the service.
‘Over the last decade, health spending in the UK has been consistently lower than in other comparable EU countries and it’s the cumulative impact of that lower spending that is apparent in the challenges facing the NHS today. The NHS has less capacity, making recovering services after COVID a much steeper challenge.
‘It’s important that health services are as efficient as possible, but in the end access to high quality services of a similar standard to our European neighbours can’t be sustained if we consistently spend less. Either we are going to have lower quality health care relative to other countries or we spend more. Balancing the public finances will mean tough choices, with potentially harsh consequences for many years to come.’
