Commenting on the Government’s plan to increase NHS funding, Jamie Whyte, Research Director at the Institute of Economic Affairs, said:

“The Conservatives are kicking an extremely expensive can down the road by refusing to couple increased healthcare spending with fundamental reform of the NHS.

“Any injection of cash would give a short-term boost to the NHS, but without structural reform and efficiency gains, it will remain an unsustainable system, characterised by waiting lists, rationing, and mediocre patient outcomes.

“If the Prime Minister is committed to improving patient outcomes – especially in serious areas such as cancer survival rates – she will need to move the NHS towards the social health insurance systems of Europe, which provide more choice to patients through a combination of public and private services.

“The Government is dangerously close to treating the Brexit dividend as their own version of the ‘magic money tree’. Make no mistake – both taxes and public borrowing will increase to make good on these funding promises.”