ABSTRACT
UK expenditure on healthcare has always been comparatively low, but since the year 2000 a major increase in expenditure on the NHS has been a key policy aim of the Labour government. For the UK as a whole government spending on the NHS rose from 5.4 per cent of GDP* in 19971 to 7.1 per cent in 2005-6. It will rise further, to 7.8 per cent of GDP, by 2007-8 (Table 5.1).
