NHS faces £20bn funding hole

Three leading think tanks have argued that the NHS faces a £20 billion funding hole, no matter which political party wins the general election.

Writing to The Times, the King’s Fund, Nuffield Trust and Health Foundation urge political parties to establish a long-term answer to rising health spending or be forced into wasteful emergency bailouts. They argue that, under current plans, the NHS will receive less than half the money it needs to avoid getting worse over the next Parliament.

Projections by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) suggest that the ageing population, rising cost of new drugs and other pressures mean the NHS will need £155 billion a year to maintain services, with analysis of party manifestos showing that figures fall short for the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats.

The three groups also warn that services will worsen and patients will wait longer and be denied new drugs because no political party is offering enough for the NHS to cope with an ageing Britain.

The letter, signed by the King’s Fund’s Chris Ham, the Nuffield Trust’s Nigel Edwards and the Health Foundation’s Jennifer Dixon, said: “Our analysis shows that none of the main political parties has pledged enough in their manifestos to cover even half of that, while the share of our national wealth spent on healthcare would fall under all of their plans.

“Failure to provide sufficient funding and improve efficiency will result in longer waiting times for patients, poorer access to cost effective treatments and a decline in NHS and social care.”