Almost every time people tune into the media nowadays there is news of some or other part of the NHS in financial difficulties. There are three reasons for this. The first is that the management structure is absurd. Not only are there managers, but there is an array of quangos and data collectors which according to one harassed NHS Trust CEO now exceed fifty in number. The second is that you cannot offer an infinite service on a finite budget. The more patients the NHS sees and the greater the demand on its services, the fewer the resources available to provide them. That is a mathematical nonsense. Third, instead of being joined up, it is ever more fragmented and has almost ceased to function as a national structure.
To remedy these problems quite a lot needs to happen. The weird twilight zone in which doctors are employed, part self, part not, has to change to an exclusive employment like any other servant of the state from mandarin to general to minister. Hospitals must operate three shifts of eight hours with the full complement of medical services to eliminate waiting lists. A tax structure to fund the system has to be developed which expands with demand. At present the UK spends less as a percent of GDP than many other developed countries on healthcare. At one point around 2009 it rose to 8% but it is now falling. This has to rise to 10% as medical treatments expand and longevity increases. The current actual cost of running the health service properly is approaching £150 billion, which is way beyond its allocation.
Finally and most important of all is that the people of Britain have to come out of their state of denial that healthcare can be done on the cheap. It cannot. And to pay for it taxes will have to go up.