Increase in public spending on health slowed in 2010, as private health spending rose

The latest annual rate of increase in UK health expenditure is the lowest for 13 years, new figures from the Office for National Statistics show.

Expenditure on healthcare rose by only 3.1% from 2009 to 2010, from £136.6bn (€168bn; $220bn) to £140.8 billion. This was “considerably lower” than the growth rate from 2008 to 2009 of 8.8%, says the ONS.

Between 1997 and 2010, the period covered by the statistics, the average annual growth in healthcare expenditure was 7.5%.

In 2010 UK …