Health and social care services across the United Kingdom are facing a huge financial challenge over the next decade – the question is whether they can respond by delivering more efficient and effective care and, if so, how to make this happen.
A Nuffield Trust work programme is examining the scale of the longer-term financial challenge and how it can best be met.
The Welsh government – like all others across the UK – will have some difficult decisions to make about NHS funding and services immediately after the next general election Andy McKeon, Senior Policy Fellow at the Nuffield Trust.
This report: A Decade of Austerity in Wales? The funding pressures facing the NHS in Wales to 2025/26, uses previous Nuffield Trust modelling that calculated the shortfall facing the NHS in England, to study the period up to 2025/26 in Wales.
This infographic shows the projected population growth in Wales for gender and age, illustrating the impact on the Welsh NHS. Click to view the full interactive version.
It explores the reasons for rising pressures on the NHS in Wales, finding that the ageing population, rising hospital admissions for people with chronic disease and increases in the cost of providing health care mean that pressures on the Welsh NHS are set to grow.
These cost pressures mean that Wales could face an unprecedented funding gap of £2.5billion by 2025/26, worth over two-fifths of its current annual budget.
This report is also available in Welsh.