NHS faces major challenges - expert

6:30am Saturday 5th July 2008

The NHS faces "major challenges" to its survival, the head of an influential health think tank said as the service celebrated its 60th anniversary on Saturday.

Niall Dickson, chief executive of the King's Fund, said obesity and an ageing population would put fresh demands on the health sector's finite resources.

His comments, made on Friday, came ahead of the National Health Service entering its seventh decade of "cradle to grave" care for people in the UK.

The NHS was officially launched on July 5, 1948 by health secretary Aneurin Bevan. It revolutionised healthcare, giving millions of people a service they had previously been denied. It was the first system of its kind in the world and people queued in the streets in the hope of getting treatment.

Sixty years on, the Government says the principles guiding the NHS remain the same, although the health landscape has undoubtedly changed.

Mr Dickson said the NHS was still "the fairest and most cost-effective health system in the world".

"It removes fear and creates what is in effect a huge compulsory insurance scheme that is valued by patients, staff and the public."

But he added that the service should not be immune from change.

"Major challenges lie ahead that will largely determine whether the NHS, funded through general taxation and available to all free at the point of need, will survive.

"Coping and caring for an ageing population, many of whom will have dementia, combating the rising tide of obesity for other lifestyle conditions and keeping pace with new drugs and medical technologies will make fresh demands on our finite resources," Mr Dickson said.

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