NHS faces ‘unprecedented squeeze’, think tank warns
Sadly more gloom and doom which I suspect will have a potentially disproportionate negative effect on rural communities. This article tells us:
NHS faces an “unprecedented squeeze” over the next five years under the burden of an ageing population, a leading think tank has warned, while George Osborne’s cuts are not yet half way done.
Spending on each patient is set to fall by over 9 per cent over a decade, despite an “expensive and generous” ring fence around health service budgets, as the British population gets bigger and older.
The protection given to NHS and aid budgets and a series of new pre-election giveaways by David Cameron and Nick Clegg means George Osborne faces an uphill battle to balance the books by 2018, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said in its annual Green Budget.
The Tories have pledged to spare the health service from the cuts of up to 30 per cent that have hit other departments.
But Britain’s population is set to grow by 3.5 million people between 2010 and 2018, and the number of over-65s, who require far higher levels of care, will grow by two million – meaning a per-head cut on health spending of 9 per cent over the period.