Can Britain afford the £110 billion that it spends on the NHS? Beyond the intrinsic value in healing sick people, it is tempting for some people in these straightened times to write off the money we pour into the health service as a burden on the economy. We should be more radical and see the NHS as a potential moneyspinner, boosting Britain’s growth rate.
And we should not let today’s funding constraints be a brake on developing our health system. Tighter budgets should be a spur to thinking differently about how to capitalise on the challenges presented by the globalisation of healthcare.
In the past couple of years, I’ve seen at first hand healthcare in 32 countries and worked with doctors and executives in public