Budget 2018 and the NHS: the gauntlet has been thrown

By Judith Smith, Professor of Health Policy and Management Director of Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham In June, the Prime Minister gave the NHS what appeared to be a very generous 70th birthday present  – the promise of a new long-term funding settlement worth an extra £20.5 billion a year by 2023-24. When set alongside other … Continue reading “Budget 2018 and the NHS: the gauntlet has been thrown”

Raising taxes to fund the NHS: are we (and the NHS) ready to grasp the nettle?

By Judith Smith , Professor of Health Policy and Management Director of Health Services Management Centre School of Social Policy, University of Birmingham ‘Tax rises needed to prevent NHS misery’. This was the stark warning from the BBC recently, reacting to new analysis by the Health Foundation and Institute for Fiscal Studies that suggests that … Continue reading “Raising taxes to fund the NHS: are we (and the NHS) ready to grasp the nettle?”