How to cure what ails the NHS

Wrong cure

Sir: In referring to the UK as the highest-spending European nation in healthcare proportionate to GDP (‘Hospital pass’, 4 December), Kate Andrews paints an exaggerated picture which is based upon additional expenditure in the NHS during the Covid pandemic, partly accounted for by £38 billion spent on test and trace. The figures are further inflated by the UK suffering a relatively greater fall in GDP.

In reality, the NHS has been woefully under-resourced compared to its European counterparts over the past decade, leaving it with approximately 50,000 fewer doctors compared to OECD averages, the second-lowest numbers of hospital beds per capita, and the lowest numbers of MRI scanners.

Given the scale of this deficit in workforce and infrastructure, it is not surprising that the NHS has struggled with access and delays in treatment. It also resulted in the UK having to cease routine services throughout the pandemic’s first wave, to create capacity for the Covid surge, which itself has led to the current record backlog of 5.8