Healthcare in the United Kingdom

Life expectancy development in UK by gender
Comparison of life expectancy at birth in England and Wales

Healthcare in the United Kingdom is a devolved matter, with England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales each having their own systems of publicly funded healthcare, funded by and accountable to separate governments and parliaments, together with smaller private sector and voluntary provision. As a result of each country having different policies and priorities, a variety of differences have developed between these systems since devolution.[1][2]

Despite there being separate health services for each country, the performance of the National Health Service (NHS) across the UK can be measured for the purpose of making international comparisons. In a 2017 report by the Commonwealth Fund ranking developed-country healthcare systems, the United Kingdom was ranked the best healthcare system in the world overall and was ranked the best in the following categories: Care Process (i.e. effective, safe, coordinated, patient-oriented) and Equity.[3] The UK system was ranked the best in the world overall in the previous three reports by the Commonwealth Fund in 2007, 2010 and 2014.[4][5][6]

The UK's palliative care has also been ranked as the best in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit.[7] On the other hand, in 2005–09 cancer survival rates lagged ten years behind the rest of Europe,[8] although survival rates later increased.[9][10] In 2015, the UK was 14th (out of 35) in the annual Euro health consumer index.[11] The index has been criticised by academics, however.[12]

The 2018 OECD data, which incorporates in health a chunk of what in the UK is classified as social care, has the UK spending £3,121 per head.[13] Healthcare spending as a share of the gross domestic product (GDP) has increased since 1997, where it was 6.8 per cent. By 2019, healthcare expenditure in the UK amounted to 10.2 per cent of GDP.[14][15] In 2017 the UK spent £2,989 per person on healthcare, around the median for members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.[16]

  1. ^ "'Huge contrasts' in devolved NHS". BBC News. 28 August 2008. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
  2. ^ "NHS now four different systems". BBC News. 2 January 2008. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
  3. ^ "Mirror, Mirror 2017: International Comparison Reflects Flaws and Opportunities for Better U.S. Health Care". www.commonwealthfund.org. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  4. ^ "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: An International Update on the Comparative Performance of American Health Care | Commonwealth Fund". www.commonwealthfund.org. May 2007. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  5. ^ "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: How the Performance of the U.S. Health Care System Compares Internationally, 2010 Update". Commonwealth Fund. Archived from the original on 11 April 2020. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
  6. ^ Davis, Karen; Stremikis, Kristof; Squires, David; Schoen, Cathy (2014). "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, 2014 Update: How the U.S. Health Care System Compares Internationally". Commonwealth Fund. Commonwealth Fund. doi:10.26099/9q4x-na97.
  7. ^ "Quality of Death Index 2015: Ranking palliative care across the world". The Economist Intelligence Unit. 6 October 2015. Archived from the original on 9 October 2015. Retrieved 8 October 2015; "UK end-of-life care 'best in world'". BBC. 6 October 2015. Retrieved 8 October 2015.
  8. ^ Allemani, Claudia; et al. (2015). "Global surveillance of cancer survival 1995–2009: analysis of individual data for 25 676 887 patients from 279 population-based registries in 67 countries (CONCORD-2))". The Lancet. 385 (9972): 977–1010. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(14)62038-9. hdl:10447/129931. PMC 4588097. PMID 25467588; "UK cancer survival rates trail 10 years behind other European countries". The Guardian. 24 March 2015. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  9. ^ "UK cancer death rates after diagnosis drop 10% in ten years". The Guardian. 4 February 2016. Retrieved 4 February 2016; "Cancer death rates fall by almost 10 per cent in 10 years". Cancer Research UK. 4 February 2016. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
  10. ^ "Bowel cancer death rate falling faster in the UK than in most other EU countries". Cancer Research UK. 7 October 2015. Archived from the original on 11 April 2020. Retrieved 31 October 2015; "Cancer survival in England is improving – but still lagging behind similar countries". Cancer Research UK. 5 August 2015. Retrieved 31 October 2015; "How to improve cancer survival" (PDF). The King's Fund. June 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 19 October 2015; "Cancer mortality trends: 1992–2020" (PDF). Macmillan. May 2013. Retrieved 19 October 2015; "Improving Outcomes: A Strategy for Cancer" (PDF). Department of Health, Public Health England. December 2014. Retrieved 31 October 2015.; "Cancer Survival in England: Adults Diagnosed 2008 to 2012, followed up to 2013". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 19 October 2015
  11. ^ "Outcomes in EHCI 2015" (PDF). Health Consumer Powerhouse. 26 January 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 June 2017. Retrieved 27 January 2016.
  12. ^ Cylus, Jonathan; Nolte, Ellen; Figueras, Josep; McKee, Martin (9 February 2016). "What, if anything, does the EuroHealth Consumer Index actually tell us?". BMJ. Retrieved 10 February 2016.
  13. ^ "Swindells: They aren't 'your' patients". Health Service Journal. 24 September 2019. Retrieved 19 November 2019.
  14. ^ "Healthcare expenditure, UK Health Accounts provisional estimates - Office for National Statistics". www.ons.gov.uk. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
  15. ^ OECD, "Health Expenditure". Accessed 10 February 2016.
  16. ^ "How does UK healthcare spending compare with other countries?". Office of National Statistics. 29 August 2019. Retrieved 5 October 2019.