Some Facts & Myth-busting about the

NHS
o

The NHS treats 1 million patients every 36 hours

Employs 1.4 million

Budget of 109.721 billion

300.6 million per day

1912 per person

Healthcare is 9.4% of GDP in Britain V.S. 17.9% of GDP in the USA.1

If it were translated into a business it would be the 3rd largest in the FTSE 100 after
Shell and BP

Rated #1 overall of 11 developed countries healthcare by Commonwealth Fund in

multiple categories such as efficiency.

Reforming the NHS cost 1.5billion and has made it more efficient

Cost of the reorganisation or (disorganisation) actually stands at close to 4 billion:

(Since the Health and Social Care Act 2012) there has been a major expansion of
bureaucracy involved in setting up new machinery for the tendering process. Before
successive governments started the privatisation process, NHS administrative costs were
close to 6% of the total NHS budget, and this was why the NHS was so cost-effective.
These costs have subsequently spiralled. The House of Commons Health Select Committee
found that simply administering the purchaser-provider split ( during the days of New
Labour) cost c 14% of NHS funds, and the explosion of administrative activity since the bill
was passed must have put the total closer to 20-25%. More money spent on administration
inevitably means less money to spend on patient care. This has already resulted in hospital
closures, cuts in nursing staff and bed cuts. Martin Rathfinder Socialist Health Association2

1 Healthcare expenditure: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.TOTL.ZS

2 http://www.sochealth.co.uk/2014/11/22/eight-myths-nhs/

We should cut managers in the NHS, there are too many

The public are led to believe there too many bureaucrats 85% in a poll support the cuts in
management by 1 third.
There are only 34,776 managers = approximately 3.5% (cut from 45,000 in 2011) of the NHS
Workforce. They cost around 3% of the NHS budget. If you asked the general public how
many NHS staff were managers the figure would be about 15.4%. We can therefore even
say that the NHS is undermanaged. Comparative roles in the NHS are Support Staff at just
over 25% and Nurses at about 27% of the total workforce. 3

NHS Spending has increased under the Coalition Government

If you look at total spending (which is basically both bits added together), then spending on
the NHS is down by 0.9% in real terms, with cuts of 1.17% in primary care and 1% in dental
services. In fact, the chair of the UK statistics authority Andrew Dilnot, following a complaint
by shadow health secretary Andy Burnham against health minister Jeremy Hunt, said he
"concludes that expenditure on the NHS in real terms was lower in 2011-12 than it was in
2009-10".4

The private Sector is more efficient

The idea that competition breeds excellence and market forces drive efficiency is a myth.
There is not an iota of evidence that the costs go down and efficiency improves when private
companies deliver NHS care. Costs increase and services may well get worse. Already we
have seen major companies such as Serco criticised for failing to report accurately on their
performance. An NHS contract for elective services with the private company Clinicenta was
terminated due to poor quality care. It was bought out at great expense to the taxpayer and
taken back in-house by the NHS. The commissioning system makes it easy for private
providers to cherry-pick tasks to ensure they maximise their income and overall profit from
the NHS while minimising their costs. Dr Kailash Chand5

3 Mark Exworthy Inaugural Lecture 28 Jan 2015:

http://bham.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=63244a4c-3b5c-41e6aa74-054ad0604ff6

4 http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/apr/24/10-great-urban-myths-debunked

5 http://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2014/aug/06/privatisation-ripping-nhs-from-ourhands