(Not my opinion - this is all from the Financial Times).
The UK spent 20% less (per person) on health than similar European countries over the past decade, according to research showing NHS has been "consistently starved of funding" (while the Conservatives have been in power).
That's how the Financial Times put it (17 November 2022).
"The UK’s total healthcare budget was £187bn per year, on average, between 2010 and 2019. It would have needed to have spent £227bn to match the average across the EU14 over the pre-pandemic decade."
The other countries' much greater public funding of healthcare meant they were "able to benefit from years of greater investment when the pandemic struck. In Germany, for example, a larger number of beds and higher staffing ratios than in the NHS helped to ensure the crisis did not disrupt other healthcare." Financial Times
Hope this isn't too much, given recent discussion. It is brilliant, brand new, highly topical and important, and he sums up my views better than I could. Counterviews welcome as always.
I'd love to hear other people's comments on this issue - I can't be the only person here deeply concerned about what's going on.
Meanwhile (from today's Sunday Mirror): Tories raking in money from private health firms as NHS is on its knees.
They're not even hiding it any more. (They used to say: "NHS free at the point of service is always safe with us"). It's so tragic to see this happening...
(Sajid, MATE, we already pay for these services - it's called progressive taxation, and there's a good reason we do it that way. If you need to raise extra billions because you spaffed it up the wall on Brexit, Dido Harding's £37bn and tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy, etc, try halving the tax reliefs given to the wealthiest 10% in the UK on their pension and ISA accounts - which would by itself raise £15bn a year - twice the amount total net you'd get by charging people to go to a doctor or to A&E. Hope your lucrative gig with JP Morgan is going well, and pleased to hear they announced aggressive investment in "promising healthcare companies" after they coincidentally employed the services of the UK Health Secretary, which happens to be you.)
Another piece echoing the Financial Times article: Rory Deighton, at the NHS Confederation, quoted as saying "the government has starved the NHS of capital investment for more than a decade and we are seeing the impact of that now."
This was in response to newspaper articles covering the fact that 34 hospitals had virtually collapsing roofs and other malfunctions due to lack of investment. From a report in the Guardian: “It’s simply unthinkable that patients are being treated in buildings that could be at risk of collapse,” said Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader. “From record waiting lists to crumbling hospital roofs, patients are paying the price of years of Conservative neglect of our NHS.”