The Guardian view on the NHS and the election: money talks | Editorial
The health service is a big issue in any UK election. There are two main reasons why, this time round, the arguments are particularly fraught. One is the sense of crisis engulfing the system after a decade of cuts, with A&E waiting times in England the worst on record, and a shortage of 100,000 staff (in a workforce of 1.3 million) predicted by experts to grow to 350,000 by 2030. Allied to this is a consensus that many of the long-term challenges faced by the system are simply not being addressed. These include the overhaul of social care, which is universally acknowledged to be necessary but apparently no closer to happening than it was in 2010, and huge rises in the number of people who are obese, and children being referred to mental health services.
The second theme is the prospect of US demands for market access and higher drug prices as part of any post-Brexit trade deal. There were typically mixed and confused signals on this issue during the summer from President Trump, and strong denials from Conservative leadership contenders that the NHS would feature in bilateral talks. But set against such assurances are the US administration's stated goal of raising prices for US medicines abroad, in order to lower them at home, and expert opinion. Andrew Hill, an adviser to the World Health Organization, predicts that the NHS drugs bill could rise from 18bn to 45bn a year.
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