England isn’t the sick man of Europe
pharmafile | January 27, 2011 | News story | | Kings Fund, NHS, NHS reform, king's fund
A leading health economist has questioned claims by the health secretary Andrew Lansley that England’s health is lagging behind other European countries.
The health secretary has claimed that spending on healthcare in England and France is at the same level, yet England suffers twice the rate of deaths from heart disease – and has used this as a justification for the sweeping reforms of the NHS.
But the King’s Fund’s chief economist John Appleby says the gap between England and continental countries such as France has been misrepresented.
Writing in the BMJ, Appleby says the UK as a whole is in better health than Lansley suggests.
Appleby says the UK has experienced the largest fall in heart attack deaths between 1980 and 2006 of any European country. If trends over the last thirty years continue, the UK will have a lower death rate than France as soon as 2012, he writes.
These trends have been achieved not only with a slower rate of growth in health care spending in the UK compared with France, but at lower levels of spending every year for the last half century, he adds.
The UK’s apparently poor record on cancer deaths compared with our neighbours has also been a key argument for reforming the NHS, says Appleby.
He points out that cancer outcomes in this country are improving, although comparisons are not straightforward and says some of the data often cited should be treated with caution.
Breast cancer deaths in the UK have fallen by 40% over the last two decades to virtually close the gap with France.
Again, if trends continue, it is likely that the UK will have lower death rates than France in just a few years, he says.
And despite headlines that the UK is the ‘sick man of Europe’, trends actually show improvements in survival rates for the UK, he adds.
Appleby concludes: “Comparing health outcomes across countries is complex and not simply down to healthcare spending, but these trends must challenge one of the government’s key justifications for reforming the NHS.”
Andrew McConaghie
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