§ Mr. Campbell-Savoursasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the extent to which any increase in real terms in the funding of the National Health Service over the last five years takes account of demographic changes and the impact on costs of technological developments.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe Government have increased spending on the National Health Service by 18 per cent. in real terms over the last five years. This increased spending after allowing for increased NHS costs, is more than enough to meet demographic changes and to make some contribution to the costs of medical advance. Greater efficiency has added to the resources available—health authorities planned to make improvements valued at £100 million or over 1 per cent. of their revenue budgets in 1984–85 alone—and will make a growing contribution. Increased resources and greater efficiency are reflected in the use of services by patients. In 1983 hospitals in England alone treated 649,000 more inpatient cases, 252,000 more day cases and had over 2.5 million more outpatient attendances than in 1978.
§ Mr. Campbell-Savoursasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the current level of expenditure on the National Health Service expressed as a percentage of gross domestic product; what information he has as to the comparable figures in other western countries; and to what extent differences in these percentages reflect variations in wage levels as between the countries concerned.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeExpenditure on the National Health Service in the United Kingdom, amounted to 5.6 per cent. of the gross domestic product in 1983, the latest year for which data are available.
Estimates of public and total expenditure on health care by other Western countries, which have been derived by the OECD, are presented as follows for the latest year for which data are available (1982).
Public expenditure on health care as a percentage of GDP (1982) Total expenditure on health care as a percentage of GDP (1982) Canada 5.9 8.2 France 6.7 9.3 Germany 6.6 8.2 Italy 6.0 7.0 United States 4.5 10.6 United Kingdom 5.2 5.9 Source: Public Expenditure on Health under Economic Constraints OECD 1984.
580WThese comparisons should be treated with great care. Some countries define health care to include items which we would regard as personal social services and which are not included in our NHS figures. The share of public expenditure on health care in GDP is affected by several factors, including the definition of public expenditure and the balance between public and private provision. These differences and many others mean that precise comparisons cannot be made.
The lack of comparable data on the wages of health care workers in different countries makes it impossible to calculate the extent to which variations in these wage levels contribute to variations in the share of expenditure on health care in GDP.