The NHS England Five Years Forward View and the missing £30 billion

The NHS England Five Years Forward View was released on 23/10/2014 and highlights that the current NHS is facing a crisis. There has been a fall in real terms expenditure, as, regardless of what the current government states, the productivity gains that were necessary to maintain NHS expenditure in real terms have not been achieved. The King’s Fund productivity report (2014) indicates that spending on health care went from 5.5% of GDP in the mid 1990s to 8% in 2009 and then stayed around that level. The King’s Fund report adds that it could fall to 6% of GDP by 2021 under a flat cash scenario for the NHS and moderate GDP growth, meaning that the resources for the NHS could be reduced by about 25%.