The NHS at 75 in comparative perspective

This chapter explores OECD data to comparatively locate the NHS in relation to a range of key measures in terms of its position today, its position before the COVID-19 pandemic, and then at two other time points. It concludes that the NHS rates comparatively strongly on equity, but that its services are under severe pressure both because of the pandemic, but also because of the wider societal context of social inequality within which it has to function – a context which has grown worse over the last decade. In order to understand and address the difficulties facing the NHS, we have to look wider than health services, and begin to address these wider societal challenges.