NHS and Health
The NHS consumes nearly a fifth of all government spending and still cannot get patients seen on time. That is the starting point. Health policy decides how long people wait for an operation, whether they can see a GP, how social care is paid for, and how a service consuming nearly a fifth of all government spending copes with an ageing population. Waiting lists, workforce shortages, mental health provision and the unresolved question of who funds social care are the recurring battlegrounds, and the performance of the department behind them is measured here against what it was set up to deliver.
The department responsible
Runs the NHS and social care, which between them touch every voter, swallow the largest single departmental budget, and never quite have enough beds.
The Broken State
Public services performance
Latest official figures for these public services, with the direction of each measure over the long term. 2 worsening over the long term.
MPs scrutinising this most
By written questions tabled to the department this Parliament.
1. Jim Shannon Democratic Unionist Party6992. James McMurdock Independent6063. Helen Morgan Liberal Democrat5584. Dr Luke Evans Conservative5135. Mr Andrew Snowden Conservative441Recent Commons votes
Bills and Acts
Investigations
The government will change the State Pension triple lock from April 2030, saving around £15 billion a year by the end of the 2030s in cash terms. Part of those savings will fund a new National Care Service offering free personal care. The full design and cost of the service will not be known until Baroness Casey's commission reports in summer 2027, and the service will not launch until the next Parliament.
The government has allocated more than £1.5 billion to hospital buildings and infrastructure across England while its own capital plan puts the NHS maintenance backlog at £15.9 billion. More than £1.3 billion of the September package is for maintenance, safety and resilience work. The money comes from the existing £6.75 billion Estates Safety Fund already set out in the government's July 10 Year Capital Plan, not a new September allocation.
Seven hospitals built predominantly from reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete will remain in use beyond 2030, with the last replacements now expected to be completed in 2032/33. More than £500 million has already been spent on mitigation. A further £440 million of operational capital is being provided to the seven trusts over four years while replacements are built.
In April 2008, the NHS was being charged 70p for a pack of 10mg hydrocortisone tablets. By March 2016, the reimbursement figure had reached £88. Annual NHS spending on the drug rose from around £500,000 to more than £80 million. On 28 July, the Court of Appeal upheld the Competition and Markets Authority's finding that the companies responsible had abused a dominant market position by charging excessive and unfair prices.