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NHS statistics

The UK's healthcare budget was £139.3 billion last year

Danny Butler
Danny Butler

Updated

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Our beloved NHS is somewhat of a national treasure, providing healthcare services to over 66 million Brits across the country. Here at Finder, we’ve given the National Health Service a check-up to see how it’s getting on. While many Brits may take their healthcare into their own hands with private healthcare, private dental care or life insurance, we’re all somewhat reliant on the NHS at some point in our lives.

The NHS at a glance

  • The planned budget for the Department of Health and Social Care for 2019/2020 is £139.3 billion, £5.4 billion more than it was in 2018/2019.
  • In 2019, the NHS employs more than 1.2 million people in the UK.
  • The average staff member working full time earns a basic salary of £32,000.
  • The overall inpatient satisfaction score fell by 1 point to 76.2 in 2018/2019.
  • There were over 24,000 calls to 999 in August 2019.

How prepared for Coronavirus is the NHS?

Although there are a wide range of variables that need to be taken into account, such as each country’s lockdown precautions and the number of tests carried out, this graph does appear to show a broad correlation between medical resources available and fatality rate.

Doctors (per 1000) Nurses (per 1000) Hospital Beds (per 100,000) Mortality Rate rate (%)
China 2 2.7 4.2 4.04
Spain 3.9 5.7 3 6.58
UK 2.9 7.8 2.4 5.04
Italy 4 6.7 3.4 9.51
France 3.4 10.8 6.5 4.33
South Korea 2.3 6.9 11.5 1.33
Germany 4.3 12.9 8.3 0.42

Coronavirus statistics (as of April 20th)

  • The COVID-19 epidemic has a fatality rate of around 13.38% in the UK and 7% for reported cases globally.
  • This is over 70 times higher than the death rate for the seasonal flu, which has a fatality rate of 0.1% on average.
  • The fatality rate for Covid-19 goes up to as much as 15% for people over the age of 80 and those with pre-existing health risks, such as high blood pressure or respiratory issues.
  • Almost 120,000 Brits have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, and close to 16,000 people have died.
  • In total, over 165,000 people have died of covid-19 worldwide.

NHS budget and expenditure

Planned spending for the Department of Health and Social Care in England is £139.3 billion for 2019/2020 and £143.4 billion for 2020/2021. On the graph below you can see that each year the budget has increased. Between 2009/2010 and 2018/2019, the budget has grown by an average of 1.5% per year.

Check out the graph below for more information on the Department of Health and Social Care budget. 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 figures represent planned spending.

Year Health and Social Care Budget (£)
2007/08 £104.4bn
2008/09 £109.5bn
2009/10 £116.8bn
2010/11 £116.9bn
2011/12 £118.2bn
2012/13 £118.6bn
2013/14 £121.5bn
2014/15 £123.8bn
2015/16 £127.1bn
2016/17 £127.8bn
2017/18 £130bn
2018/19 £132.9bn
2019/20 £139.3bn
2020/21 £143.4bn

NHS staff

The NHS employs over 1.2 million people in 2019, making it the biggest employer in the UK and one of the biggest in the world. The overall number of NHS staff has fluctuated over the last 10 years but has been steadily rising since a low in mid-2013. The 2019 employment figures show that staff numbers are the highest they’ve been in the last 10 years.

Date Total staff headcount
Sep-09 1,154,679
Oct-09 1,160,629
Nov-09 1,164,502
Dec-09 1,162,911
Jan-10 1,166,193
Feb-10 1,167,028
Mar-10 1,168,750
Apr-10 1,166,251
May-10 1,164,236
Jun-10 1,163,676
Jul-10 1,161,598
Aug-10 1,163,422
Sep-10 1,164,638
Oct-10 1,166,203
Nov-10 1,166,199
Dec-10 1,161,776
Jan-11 1,161,866
Feb-11 1,161,051
Mar-11 1,158,920
Apr-11 1,150,291
May-11 1,147,478
Jun-11 1,145,036
Jul-11 1,141,431
Aug-11 1,140,728
Sep-11 1,141,323
Oct-11 1,142,268
Nov-11 1,140,700
Dec-11 1,137,069
Jan-12 1,139,176
Feb-12 1,129,528
Mar-12 1,128,140
Apr-12 1,126,797
May-12 1,118,085
Jun-12 1,115,605
Jul-12 1,119,486
Aug-12 1,115,542
Sep-12 1,117,038
Oct-12 1,120,204
Nov-12 1,121,612
Dec-12 1,119,453
Jan-13 1,123,204
Feb-13 1,124,652
Mar-13 1,123,529
Apr-13 1,103,934
May-13 1,101,661
Jun-13 1,101,605
Jul-13 1,104,212
Aug-13 1,104,012
Sep-13 1,111,101
Oct-13 1,114,017
Nov-13 1,117,650
Dec-13 1,117,143
Jan-14 1,123,165
Feb-14 1,124,857
Mar-14 1,126,947
Apr-14 1,126,073
May-14 1,123,630
Jun-14 1,123,725
Jul-14 1,123,334
Aug-14 1,123,331
Sep-14 1,131,680
Oct-14 1,134,435
Nov-14 1,136,759
Dec-14 1,135,421
Jan-15 1,139,285
Feb-15 1,140,901
Mar-15 1,143,102
Apr-15 1,141,920
May-15 1,139,466
Jun-15 1,141,390
Jul-15 1,142,585
Aug-15 1,142,147
Sep-15 1,151,138
Oct-15 1,156,066
Nov-15 1,160,672
Dec-15 1,156,662
Jan-16 1,161,884
Feb-16 1,164,546
Mar-16 1,164,471
Apr-16 1,163,873
May-16 1,165,524
Jun-16 1,164,996
Jul-16 1,166,222
Aug-16 1,169,416
Sep-16 1,175,668
Oct-16 1,181,396
Nov-16 1,183,493
Dec-16 1,177,369
Jan-17 1,184,881
Feb-17 1,185,776
Mar-17 1,187,125
Apr-17 1,186,420
May-17 1,186,298
Jun-17 1,185,599
Jul-17 1,187,298
Aug-17 1,186,521
Sep-17 1,193,107
Oct-17 1,200,538
Nov-17 1,202,806
Dec-17 1,198,238
Jan-18 1,205,949
Feb-18 1,205,814
Mar-18 1,205,246
Apr-18 1,205,954
May-18 1,204,035
Jun-18 1,203,610
Jul-18 1,207,586
Aug-18 1,209,678
Sep-18 1,216,719
Oct-18 1,226,573
Nov-18 1,229,618
Dec-18 1,226,362
Jan-19 1,233,963
Feb-19 1,236,537
Mar-19 1,238,061
Apr-19 1,241,326
May-19 1,239,631

How much does NHS staff earn on average?

Of those working full time for the NHS, the mean basic pay is just under £32,000. This does, however, vary depending on the role and the experience you have. The best-paid role at the NHS is as a hospital practitioner/clinical assistant, which pays on average £113,000 per year.

Role Basic salary (£)
Hospital Practitioner / Clinical Assistant £113,765
Consultant £91,978
Associate Specialist £83,872
Other and Local HCHS Doctor Grades £83,442
Senior managers £80,315
HCHS doctors £65,638
Specialty Doctor £62,426
Staff Grade £57,500
Managers £48,826
Specialty Registrar £43,041
Professionally qualified clinical staff £39,348
Core Training £38,470
Scientific, therapeutic & technical staff £36,000
Midwives £33,970
Nurses & health visitors £32,385
All staf average £31,866
Foundation Doctor Year 2 £31,097
NHS infrastructure support £29,739
Ambulance staff £28,277
Foundation Doctor Year 1 £27,028
Central functions £26,614
Support to ST&T staff £20,762
Support to ambulance staff £20,416
Support to clinical staff £19,934
Support to doctors, nurses & midwives £19,714
Hotel, property & estates £19,143
Other staff or those with an unknown classification £19,089

A&E waiting times

There were 2.13 million attendances to A&E in August 2019. This is 6.4% more than there were in August 2018. The number of visits to A&E in the last 12 months was 3.9% higher than it was in the 12 months prior. While the vast majority of patients (86.3%) were seen in 4 hours or less, this is still far below the target rate of 95%, which was last met in July 2015. Over 260,000 patients waited longer than 4 hours, while 372 patients waited more than 12 hours to be seen.

Inpatient satisfaction survey

Across all the NHS trusts in the UK, an inpatient survey is conducted to assess the satisfaction of care. In 2018, this survey consisted of 76,000 respondents aged 16+ who had spent at least one night in hospital during July 2018 and were not admitted to maternity or psychiatric units.

The overall satisfaction score was 76.2. The element that achieved the highest score was building closer relationships (85), while safe, high quality, coordinated care received the lowest score (65.8). All five elements that the questionnaire measured decreased from 2017. To see how these scores compare to previous years, take a look at the table below.

2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19
Access & waiting 83.8 84.5 82.9 83.5 82.3
Safe, high quality, coordinated care 65.5 66.3 66.1 66.8 65.8
Better information, more choice 68.9 69.3 68 68.6 67.3
Building closer relationships 84.6 85.4 85.5 85.8 85
Clean, comfortable, friendly place to be 80.1 81.1 81.1 81.4 80.8
Inpatient overall patient experience score 76.6 77.3 76.7 77.2 76.2

The cost of an ambulance

There were over 24,000 calls to 999 in August 2019, 13,000 of which resulted in a patient being transported to an emergency department. In August 2019, the average response time to the most critical cases (known as C1) was 7 minutes and 5 seconds, just above the target time of 7 minutes. The next most severe incidents (C2) had an average response time of 21 minutes and 13 seconds in August 2019, longer than the 18-minute standard.

  • There are 14 NHS ambulance bodies in the UK – 11 in England and 1 in each of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
  • NHS ambulance trusts in England spent £92 million on private ambulances in 2018/2019, £2 million more than in the previous year.
  • Air ambulances in England, Northern Ireland and Wales are all provided by charities.
  • Scotland has one charity air ambulance to work alongside four NHS-funded air ambulances.

Sources

NHS Digital
Kingsfund

Click here for more research. For all media enquiries, please contact:

Matt Mckenna
UK communications manager
T: +44 20 8191 8806
matt.mckenna@finder.com@MichHutchison/in/matthewmckenna2

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