What is the cost of the NHS per person in the UK?
£2700 per person per year – £182 billion for DHSC divided by 67 million population.
If you broaden the NHS to all forms of healthcare (social core, local authority and other government bodies) it is more, about £280 billion a year, i.e. £4200 each (ONS data, 2021).
Total pharmaceutical (drug industry) expenditure in the UK stood at a staggering £40 billion in 2021 (about 15% of current health expenditure).
How do we know all this?
We don’t actually. Why? It is actually very hard to say, as it is surprisingly difficult to define the NHS.
For example, does it include all the 4 nations, as they have different NHSs. Does it include healthcare for the armed services? Health and justice (prisons)? Does it include arms length bodies like NICE, HEE, and CQC. What about public health (UKHSA)? It is not clear.
Either way, the NHS is not cheap, and the NHS is not free
Back to the cost. Total UK central government funding for health (including spending by central government departments and devolved administrations) in 2023/24 was about £182 billion – about 1/2 £billion a day. With a population of 67 million, that’s about £2700 per person per year, or £225 a month.
NHS England runs the NHS in England for the DHSC. It receives the largest amount (about £160 billion), as it has the biggest population. £140 billion of this budget is allocated to the 42 Integrated Care Boards (ICBs; which took over from CCGs in April 2022).
Summary
We have explained what is the cost of the NHS per person in the UK. About £2700 per person per year (or £4200 each if you include all healthcare). Do you think this is value for money?
