Private health spending shot up by nearly 9% last year as NHS services continue to collapse

People in the UK spent a record £32bn on mostly private health care last year – up from £29.8bn in 2022. That included £8.6bn on medicines, vitamins, and supplements, and £10bn on in-patient medical care. As the cost of prescriptions in England rises to nearly £10, a leading expert says it’s great to see Brits are becoming more health-conscious, but how much of this spending is from choice, and how much from necessity because of the Tories’ decimation of the NHS?

Private health care: spending is up

The latest consumer spending figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveal UK households spent a record £32.3bn on health products and services in 2023, up £2.5bn (8.3%) over 2022’s £29.8bn.

Last year, we spent £8.6bn on pharmaceutical products such as medicines, vaccines and vitamins, up from 2022’s £7.9bn. We also spent £4.2bn on consultations with doctors and specialists and £4bn on dentists and hygienists.

Brits also splashed £1.3bn on private health acupuncturists, aromatherapists and reflexologists, although this figure also includes private nurses and midwives.

One of the most significant amounts of household expenditure was £10bn on in-patient hospital services, including medical care, meals and accommodation charges. This was another new record, up from just over £9bn in 2022.

NHS: unable to fund

Dr Avinash Hari Narayanan (MBChB), Clinical Lead at London Medical Laboratory, says:

It is great that Brits are now spending more on preventative healthcare measures, such as vitamins, acupuncturists and elective finger-prick blood tests and vaccinations. However, it is concerning that a growing amount of our household spending is going on health issues that the NHS is increasingly unable to fund.

For example, we spent £657m on therapeutic equipment last year; that’s items such as spectacles and contact lenses, hearing aids and wheelchairs. Until 1986, the NHS offered free eye tests and glasses for everyone. Similarly, NHS dentistry was initially free.

Today, even under the NHS, crowns and bridges will cost most Brits over £260, and that’s if you can find an NHS dentist in your area. It’s small wonder that we are now spending £4bn on dental services, up from £3.6bn in 2022.

These record figures appear just as patients in England endure another rise in prescription prices. From 1 May, NHS prescriptions rose from £9.65 to £9.90 per item and the 12-month prescription prepayment certificate increased from £111.60 to £114.50.

Prescription costs of almost £10 are becoming a burden on household purses. Until the late 1960s, there was no prescription charge in England, and there are currently no charges in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Moreover, all this comes against a backdrop of Tory cuts to the NHS.

More cuts means less choice

As the Guardian reported:

Health spending in England is due to suffer a 1.2% cut – worth £2bn – in the new financial year starting next month, despite the NHS facing extra costs from continuing pay strikes and the expansion of its workforce, according to an analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IfS).

The health budget, almost all of which the NHS gets, is to go from £168.2bn in 2023-24 to £166.2bn in 2024-25, after adjustment for inflation, in 2022-23 prices.

Without a government rethink the reduction in funding will force the NHS to cut staffing numbers, staff pay, the services it provides to patients or all three, the thinktank warned.

So these record figures present a mixed picture in many ways. It does look as if we are becoming inured to spending money on private health services and equipment that was previously free, and that does represent long-term health risks for the UK population – especially the poorest people – if costs continue to rise and NHS services fall.

Featured image via luismanuelm – Envato Elements