The NHS is undoubtedly at the heart of the general election campaign. The Labour Party’s evocative rhetoric and personal attacks on both the Prime Minister and Health Secretary have attempted to convince the public that the Conservatives can’t be trusted to protect the NHS, whilst the Conservatives have attacked the opposition’s record in charge of the NHS in Wales as evidence that the opposition couldn’t successfully run the service in England.
This politicisation of the NHS comes at a time when the service itself has published a Five Year Forward View for the NHS calling for an £8 billion annual uplift in funding from the government coupled with further efficiency savings to go alongside the £20 billion saved in this parliament. The majority of recent efficiency savings have been made through increased pay restraint which all policy makers are aware cannot continue, so tough and unpopular decisions will be needed to ensure that the service remains high quality and free at the point of use.
In an ‘arms race’ to meet this challenge all three major Wesminster parties have pledged to meet NHS England’s recommendations, but what exactly do they have planned?
With only 73 days to go until voters head to the polls, Whitehouse has this covered in our new policy report, Health in 2015.
The report explains both the current layout of the health system, which has been widely described as confused and hard to navigate by commentators, and the likely make up of the NHS from 2015 depending on which party is in charge following May’s election.
Our policy report can be found here.
Follow @whitehouse_hlth to make sure that you keep updated with all the latest NHS developments.
