The just published King's Fund Report compares the UK health system unfavourably to the health systems of other countries.
https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/sites/default/files/2023-06/How_NHS_compare_2023.pd
Two of its findings perhaps explain why we are in the mess we are in.
The UK lags behind other countries in its capital investment, and has
substantially fewer key physical resources than many of its peers, including
computerised tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
scanners and hospital beds.
The UK has strikingly low levels of key clinical staff, including doctors and
nurses, and is heavily reliant on foreign-trained staff.
Clearly, the last 13 years of Tory government have made things much worse, but when it comes to, say, hospital beds, the PFI hospitals built under New Labour were built on the assumption that we didn't need as many hospital beds. This was something that came back to bite us when it came to Covid, when the NHS just couldn't cope, in contrast to countries like Germany, which had so much capacity that they were able to take in Covid patients from other countries. But it also means we struggle more generally, and not just in the winter months.
[Post edited 26 Jun 2023 8:47]
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