Free NHS will come to an end within 10 years, health care leaders predict

A survey says that NHS will come to an end due to the squeeze on funding.

12:33 10 July 2014

Due to funding crisis, nearly half of the 78 health and care leaders that participated in a survey conducted by the Nuffield Trust said that they feel NHS in England will no longer be free at the point of use within 10 years.

Although Labour said that this is an “unrealistic picture” it admits that NHS finances were in a “dire state.”

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said: "Everywhere you look, there are signs of an NHS now heading rapidly in the wrong direction.

"It is not just standards of patient care that are getting worse but NHS finances are in a dire state."

The health service, which currently gets £100bn a year, needs an additional £2bn to address the growing demand. Provisional figures for 2013-14 show that the overall deficit was about £100million.

Report author Andy McKeon said: "The NHS has risen to the challenge of living within its means over the past three years," he said.

"But it has now reached a tipping point. The NHS is heading for a funding crisis this year or next."

Rob Webster, chief executive of the NHS Confederation which represents NHS trusts, said: "Staff have worked incredibly hard over the last four years to deliver unprecedented savings while public finances have been constrained, but the challenge is getting much more difficult."