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3.4. Health

Spending on the Department of Health has increased by £30bn since 1996-97 from £51bn in 1996-97 to
£81bn in 2004-05, an increase of almost 60 per cent and an increase from 5.5 per cent to 7 per cent of
GDP.

Needless to say most of this money has gone to the National Health Service (NHS) where
spending has increased from just £33bn in 1996-97 to a projected £92bn in 2007-08. Between
April 1997 and March 2004 spending has increased at an average annual rate of 5.8 per cent,
which is set to increase to 7.2 per cent up to 2007-08. This compares with 3.1 per cent average
annual increase between April 1979 and March 1997.

This sustained investment has led to significant improvements in the NHS. Compared to 1997-98, there
are now for example 450,000 more NHS operations and 860,000 more elective admissions per year.
Maximum waiting times for an operation have been halved from 18 months in 1997 to nine months in
April 2004, and there are 264,000 fewer patients waiting for treatment.

Again below is an example of the Department of Health’s objectives and performance targets. Chart 9
shows performance against one of these targets.

Objective: improve service standards.

• Reduce the maximum wait for an outpatient appointment to 3 months and the maximum wait for
  inpatient treatment to 6 months by the end of 2005, and achieve progressive further cuts with the
  aim of reducing the maximum inpatient and day case waiting time to 3 months by 2008


• Guarantee access to a primary care professional within 24 hours and to a primary care doctor
  within 48 hours from 2004.
  Figure 9 - Progress against health PSA

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Dec-00 Apr-01 Aug-01 Dec-01 Apr-02 Aug-02 Dec-02 Apr-03 Aug-03 Dec-03 Apr-04

thousands of people

waiting longer than 6 months for a first inpatient treatment

waiting longer than 13 weeks for a first outpatient appointment

As the above Figure shows the number of people who, 1) wait over six months for inpatient
treatment and 2), wait longer than 3 months for an outpatient appointment have significantly
fallen over the last few years. Those waiting for inpatient treatment fell ten per cent each quarter
since August 2001 and those waiting for an outpatient appointment by 3 per cent. Although