The British Medical Association has urged the government to increase health spending by £10bn a year to bring funding into line with other leading European economies and shore up the NHS.
The union for doctors said increasing health spending to a proportion of GDP that matched that of the 10 leading economies across Europe could pay for at least 35,000 extra beds a day and several thousand more GPs.
In a letter to the chancellor, Philip Hammond, before Wednesday’s budget, the BMA council chair, Dr Mark Porter, wrote: “Our members report that services are truly at breaking point, with unprecedented rising patient demand met only with financial restraint and directives for the NHS and social care to make huge, unachievable savings through sustainability and transformation plans (STPs)across England.
“We are not calling for more than other comparable nations, we are simply calling for you to match the average spending of other leading European economies. Based on our analysis of the figures available, this would, in 2015, have equated to an increase of £10.3bn for NHS funding; an increase which is desperately needed.”
Full story in The Guardian, 6 March 2017