NHS and Health

The NHS consumes nearly a fifth of all government spending and still cannot get patients seen on time. That is the starting point. Health policy decides how long people wait for an operation, whether they can see a GP, how social care is paid for, and how a service consuming nearly a fifth of all government spending copes with an ageing population. Waiting lists, workforce shortages, mental health provision and the unresolved question of who funds social care are the recurring battlegrounds, and the performance of the department behind them is measured here against what it was set up to deliver.