For the cash-strapped National Health Service, it’s a foretaste of an unaffordable future. To afford one and fix the other, the NHS is increasingly desperate for an ever-bigger portion of the UK’s limited financial resources. Policy makers are facing a brutal reality: either taxes are raised, free NHS services are cut, other government departments are effectively scrapped — or Britain’s health service breaks. By 2067, the NHS will cost 13.8% of GDP, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility, the UK’s fiscal watchdog. Yet staff costs account for half of the NHS budget and pay demands keep rising, as shown by this year’s NHS strikes.

Source: News 24 January 25, 2023 00:35 UTC