Published 29 June 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2635
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b2635

News

BMA meeting: More than three quarters of people think NHS funds should be protected from spending cuts

Deborah Cohen

1 BMJ

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

Seventy seven per cent of people think that cuts should be made in departments other than the Department of Health to maintain funding of the NHS, a public opinion poll conducted on behalf of the BMA indicates.

In the poll of 1071 members of the public in five cities across the United Kingdom, 40% thought that taxes should be raised to avoid ending growth in the NHS. Earlier this month managers warned that the NHS would face a shortfall in funding after 2011.

Speaking at a press briefing before the BMA’s annual representative meeting in Liverpool this week, Hamish Meldrum, the association’s chairman, cautioned against making cuts in the NHS. He said, "While we appreciate that the government needs to steer the country through this difficult economic period, we urge it not to do so at the expense of NHS funding. People always need good quality health care, and it . . . [Full text of this article]


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