Financial crisis is inevitable in the NHS by 2015-16, King’s Fund says

A significant increase in NHS funding is needed to halt a looming financial crisis that will lead to “damaging consequences” for patient care, the King’s Fund has warned.

The NHS Productivity Challenge: Experience from the Front Line,1 a new report published by the healthcare think tank on 1 May, argued that a financial crisis was “now inevitable by 2015-16 and could arrive sooner,” with more than a quarter of NHS trusts already in deficit.

The fund said that drastic action was required in order to deal with the crisis, and it called for honesty from all political parties about the scale of the …