The NHS and Social Care: Prospects for Funding, Staffing and Performance into the 2020s
Health featured prominently in the 2016 referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union (EU), with the Leave campaign’s claim that Brexit would mean that £350 million extra money per week could be transferred from the UK’s EU budget contributions to the NHS. Although the current Conservative government has ruled this out, arguing that any change in UK public expenditure plans is conditional on the Brexit negotiations with the EU, the NHS remains a central focus of all the main parties’ election manifestos. The fundamental issue is whether the NHS is adequately funded. Related to arguments over the level of funding are questions about the delivery of healthcare: in essence, what role efficiency savings and internal competition for NHS resources should play in giving appropriate incentives in the delivery of healthcare; and whether service provision is deteriorating. Funding for the delivery of social care for the elderly faces its own crisis – and it has become a controversial issue in the election debate.
25 May 2017 Paper Number CEPEA037
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This CEP election analysis is published under the centre's Growth programme.