Health Foundation: New government must give social care greater GDP share
“And so say all of us…” I couldn’t agree with this article more – which tells us:
Even if the short-term pressures facing the social care and health system at present are fixed, the pace of funding growth for the sector will need to accelerate beyond 2020 and take a greater share of the GDP if we are to keep pace with demand, the Health Foundation has argued.
In the first of three briefing papers planned for before the snap election in June, the influential think-tank reiterated warnings that the social care system is “widely recognised as inadequate and unfair and needs a fundamental reform”.
Central to this will be ensuring it absorbs a greater share of GDP than it does at present, in order to keep up with an increasing and ageing population that brings with it a rise in chronic disease levels. It will also be imperative to grow funding in order to meet public expectations and fund new technologies and medical advances.
With the UK economy expected to grow at a mean rate of 2.4% a year, accounting for inflation, the budget of the NHS and social care in England will need to increase by at least £33bn to maintain its share of GDP to around £160bn in 2031-32 in today’s prices, the Foundation said.