Some Facts & Myth-busting about theNHS

o The NHS treats 1 million patients every 36 hours

o Employs 1.4 million

o Budget of £109.721 billion

o £300.6 million per day

o £1912 per person

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

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

o 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-41e6-aa74-054ad0604ff6

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-our-hands