UK low in G20 league table for healthcare

When it comes to the G20 league table for healthcare, the UK is bumping along somewhere near the bottom.

Turkey and Mexico are the only two countries in the G20 which have fewer nurses per 100,000 people than the UK, according to latest analysis of data held by the World Health Organisation, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and the Commonwealth Fund.

The shortfall could be attributed to the cuts in the numbers of training places in each year under the coalition government. A recent report revealed the NHS is facing such a chronic shortage of British nurses that one in four had to be recruited from abroad in 2015.

And the The UK was in the bottom five for the number of available hospital beds (261 beds per 100,000 people). The countries that ranked lower were Canada (258), South Africa (231), Brazil (229) and Mexico (152).

In contrast, Japan fared particularly well in these sectors coming first place for the most hospital beds (1317 per 100,000) and third place for the number of nurses (1081 per 100,000). Other countries that performed well included Germany (fourth position for hospital beds and first position for number of nurses) and France (fifth and fourth positions).

The study examines factors such as the percentage of publicly funded healthcare, the percentage of GDP spent on healthcare and the number of beds and nurses available in each country.

Japan has the highest percentage of publicly funded healthcare (84%), which is significantly higher than the OECD average of 72 percent. The role of the state in providing healthcare services outstrips many other developed countries. Japan is closely followed by the UK (83%), Italy (78%), Germany (77%), and Turkey (77%).

The USA (48%) and Brazil (46%) were the two countries with the lowest figures for public finance. Brazil’s low funding could in part be down to its public health system run by Rio’s state government reaching breaking point at the end of last year after authorities admitted to a budget shortfall, which was blamed on the drop in oil revenue.

The USA is the number one country when it comes to healthcare as a percentage of GDP (17.1%) and health care spending far exceeds that of other high-income countries.

Available cross-national pricing data suggests prices for healthcare are notably higher in the U.S., potentially explaining a large part of the higher health spending.

France has the second highest healthcare spend as a percentage of GDP (11.5%) and Germany the third (11.3%). Turkey and Mexico were the G20 countries with the lowest percentages (5.4%) and (6.3%). The UK was in eighth position (9.1%).

ACA’s Director of Operations James Ware commented on its latest findings by saying:
“We hope the latest G20 summit will help to accelerate addressing some of the UK’s key healthcare issues. It’s also interesting to see how well countries such as Japan and Germany fare in several categories.”