A week after Theresa May made her big announcement that NHS funding will increase by £20 million a year by 2023, four major think-tanks published an assessment of how good the health service is at the moment. The Institute for Fiscal Studies, King’s Fund, Nuffield Trust and Health Foundation concluded that the NHS does well on access but poorly on outcomes. The IFS and Health Foundation led an NHS Confederation report earlier this year that concluded health and social care will need more money than the government is planning to inject, just to keep on top of rising demand. Even more would be needed to make improvements. The day after the report was issued, doctors warned that Brexit will hit the nation’s health and NHS services; with the worst consequences coming from a no-deal exit. On the healthcare IT front, two more LHCREs were announced, NHS Digital announced a plan to collect private sector data, and the UK Space Agency launched a challenge fund to get space tech working on big NHS challenges.
Healthcare Roundup 29 June 2018
