On @BBCr4today, Unison's @cmcanea did an excellent job of explaining why Govt claims of "record" funding for the NHS are misleading.
(ie health inflation higher than normal inflation + demographic pressure)Here's a key graph to remember whenever you hear 'record' spending: pic.twitter.com/o2lwReHuy9
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) December 19, 2022
Paul Waugh, the Chief Political Commentator for the Independent‘s spinoff the i Newspaper, tweets, “On @BBCr4today, Unison’s @cmcanea did an excellent job of explaining why Govt claims of “record” funding for the NHS are misleading. (ie health inflation higher than normal inflation + demographic pressure)
Here’s a key graph to remember whenever you hear ‘record’ spending”
His tweet then shows a graph of the average annual increase in government spending on health in 2019/20 prices for various governments plotted against time. Note that inflation is already accounted for by having all the spending figures at 2019/2020 prices. If spending on the NHS had merely kept pace with inflation, the bars would all have a height of zero. As it is, all of the bars are positive. Therefore not only has there been record funding for the NHS under this government, there has been record funding for the NHS under every government.
Whether one thinks this a good thing or a bad thing, it is a fact.