How can we preserve a publicly funded health service in the current economic climate? This briefing paper offers solutions for reducing spending.
Funding of health care in the UK is under pressure in the short term after 2010/11 because of the need to fund the £167bn public deficit in the economy. This briefing paper, produced by the Nuffield Trust and commissioned by Tribal, examines NHS funding and how to maintain the service in the face of lower financial settlements.
The paper outlines a number of tools that could help to keep NHS spending down. It argues that radical reform of the health sector is required in the medium term to reduce ill health, dependency on the NHS, and inefficiencies in care resulting from avoidable use of costly hospital care, mainly among older people and those with chronic conditions.
This briefing will be of interest to healthcare policy-makers, senior managers and clinicians, and others interested in efficiency, as well as academics and students in the fields of healthcare and social policy.
The Nuffield Trust will follow the publication of this paper with a major programme of research and policy analysis – The quest for efficiency in the English NHS – that will examine how the NHS can become more efficient in a period of financial restraint.