UK plummets in healthcare league

THE government yesterday dismissed claims that Britain’s health system is among the worst in Europe, after a new study found that the UK has plummeted in world healthcare rankings.

The research, published yesterday, placed the UK 18th in a global league table of healthcare systems - eight places lower than a World Health Organisation (WHO) ranking published three years ago.

The study was carried out by researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, in direct response to the WHO study of 2000.

The UK was ranked tenth in the WHO study, slightly ahead of countries such as Norway, Denmark and Finland, but trailing Japan, Australia and France.

However, the WHO report was heavily criticised by experts who questioned the validity of the study that judged health systems on the basis of health outcomes, responsiveness and financing. Medical experts from around the world said it was misleading to look at deaths from all causes, no matter what the causes were.

Many said it would be more appropriate to look only at those deaths that were avoidable through timely and effective health care, such as some cancers and diabetes.

In response, researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine set about reassessing the healthcare systems of 19 industrialised countries, separating out factors such as diet, smoking rates, accidents and suicides.

The study, published in the British Medical Journal, placed the UK second from the bottom of the league, and just one step ahead of Portugal.

Japan, which was judged the world’s best performing healthcare system in the WHO study, fell to 13th. Sweden topped of the new rankings, up from fourth place in the WHO table.

Norway, which was listed at No 11 by the WHO, was promoted to No 2 in the new ranking, just behind its Scandinavian neighbour, Sweden.

Dr Ellen Nolte, one of the authors of the study, urged the WHO to take on board their findings as a better way of measuring the effectiveness of health systems.

She said: "We have looked at how the WHO’s rankings of health-system performance would change if only those causes amenable to healthcare were included.

"They show that, for some countries, the differences would be very substantial."

Karen Thomson, the vice-chairwoman of the Patients Forum, the umbrella body for patients organisations in the UK, said the government must be prepared to consider the findings of the new study.

She said: "When you use different measures, you will get different results - but it sounds as if the measures used in the new study are pretty relevant.

"To fall from tenth to 18th in the league table is something we cannot dismiss, and the government should at least question why this is."

Neither the WHO study nor the new research included a breakdown for Scotland.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health at Westminster dismissed the report, saying that higher investment by the government has reversed the decline of the NHS under the Tories.

She added: "This report is out of date. The NHS is a world leader in many fields, but of course we need to continue to invest and reform to secure further improvements.

"Health spending in the UK is now rising more than the average in the developed world."

A spokesman for the Scottish Executive said that the more than 7 billion would be invested in the NHS north of the Border in the year 2003-04, with deaths from heart disease, cancer and stroke falling.