I actually made no claim about NHS in particular. I only pointed out that if the number of people (and heavy service users in particular, like old people) is increasing then not increasing the budget appropriately is the same as cutting it.
I don't know if it kept up or not, but the comment I replied to mentioned that in some years the budget was static so unless UK population somehow stopped growing or becoming older the effective budget per user has been effectively cut in those years.
But to your point, you may say population increased by 6% but you ignore the fact that thanks to life standards having increased there's also an ever-increasing number of old people who don't count as population increase but do increase the burden on the NHS.
Comments
I actually made no claim about NHS in particular. I only pointed out that if the number of people (and heavy service users in particular, like old people) is increasing then not increasing the budget appropriately is the same as cutting it.
I don't know if it kept up or not, but the comment I replied to mentioned that in some years the budget was static so unless UK population somehow stopped growing or becoming older the effective budget per user has been effectively cut in those years.
But to your point, you may say population increased by 6% but you ignore the fact that thanks to life standards having increased there's also an ever-increasing number of old people who don't count as population increase but do increase the burden on the NHS.