- 28 November 2019
- 5 min read
Number of practising nurses in UK considerably lower than other high-income countries
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The UK has lower healthcare expenditure than Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the US with fewer doctors and nurses per capita.
Spending, outcomes and time with patients - UK behind other countries
The UK lags behind nine other high-income countries when it comes to health service spending, outcomes and how much time doctors spend with patients, research has suggested.
The study, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), said the quality of NHS care appears to be “slipping”, with Britons faring worse than their counterparts abroad.
Experts from the London School of Economics and Harvard School of Public Health compared the UK with nine comparable high-income countries: Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the US.
They used data, including from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), to look at seven key areas of health.
Lowest spend on healthcare per person
The findings showed the UK had the lowest healthcare expenditure per person at £2,978, compared with an average of £4,438 in the other countries.
Overall, the UK spent approximately 8.7% of GDP on health in 2017, compared with the average of 11.5%.
Even when social care was included, the UK spent less overall than its counterparts, the study found.
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