Yes, reform is necessary. But without increases in spending as well, Britain will continue to be the sick man of Europe
The UK is the sick man of Europe. Since 2010, improvements in healthy life expectancy have stalled, health inequalities have been increasing and health for people living in the most deprived areas has been getting worse. The country has been struggling with three big challenges: a decade of austerity, the Covid-19 pandemic and a cost-of-living crisis. Each of these has exposed a grim fact: Britain is an unhealthy place to be poor, even relatively poor.
A tottering NHS has not been the cause of these threats to health but, increasingly, it is not there when we need it. People have noticed. Satisfaction with the health service among the general population was at 34% in 1997. This picked up, reaching 70% in 2010 after Labour began its reforms and markedly increased funding. It has been downhill since, reaching a new low in 2022 with just 29% of people satisfied.
Michael Marmot is professor of epidemiology at University College London, director of the UCL Institute of Health Equity and past president of the World Medical Association
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