Tories urge Theresa May to fund NHS by raising taxes

Former business minister Nick Boles has suggested overhauling national insurance to create a stream of revenue solely for the health service

Theresa May is facing growing calls from Conservative MPs to consider higher taxes to fund the struggling NHS, with Nick Boles suggesting an overhaul of national insurance to pay for it.

Boles, a former business minister who was treated for cancer last year, published a paper on Thursday proposing a rebranding of national insurance to “national health insurance” to associate it specifically with the NHS.

Between 2010-11 and 2016-17, health spending increased by an average of 1.2% above inflation and increases are set to continue in real terms at a similar rate until the end of this parliament. This is far below the annual inflation-proof growth rate that the NHS enjoyed prior to 2010 of almost 4% stretching back to the 1950s. As budgets tighten, NHS organisations have been struggling to live within their means. In the financial year 2015-16, acute trusts recorded a deficit of £2.6bn. This was reduced to £800m last year, though only after a £1.8bn bung from the Department of Health, which shows the deficit remained the same year on year.

We will be monitoring the situation in hospitals over the next few months and want to hear your experiences of the NHS this winter. We are keen to hear from healthcare professionals as well as patients about the situation. Have operations been cancelled? Has pressure led to certain wards being closed? How are staff coping? Help us document what is going on across the UK.

Continue reading... January 11, 2018 at 11:43PM