A generous birthday present to the NHS

BMJ 1998;317:224-225 ( 25 July )

Editorials

A generous birthday present to the NHS

But spending it wisely may be difficult

News p 231

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

New Labour has paid its tribute to the one symbol of Old Labour's achievements that has stood the test of time. The British government's 50th birthday present to the National Health Servicehas, at £21bn over the next three years, turned out to be evenmore generous than expected. It implies an annual growth of 4.7%in the NHS's budget, well above the rate conventionally assumedto be necessary to accommodate demographic pressures and technological change.¹ Whatever the doubts about the precise significanceof the figures announced by the chancellor of the exchequer, andwhatever the reservations about how the money is to be spent,this represents morale boosting reassurance that the government'scommitment to the NHS is more than rhetorical.

The planned 4.7% growth rate in real terms depends on one key assumption. This is that the rise in the costs of the inputsto the NHS $---$ in particular, . . . [Full text of this article]

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