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All areas

Area 2 of 10

Health

Monthly

£17bn

Share

22%

Per household

£567

Per person

£284

exact ONS/HMRC/MHCLG/PSS fields

What does health spending aim to achieve?

  • Improve population health

  • Provide high quality care

  • Reduce health inequalities

  • Value for money

exact ONS/HMRC/MHCLG/PSS fields

Hospital & Community Care

£7.2bn

42.4% · £240/household

  • Acute hospital services
  • Community health services
  • Outpatient services

Primary Care

£2.4bn

14.1% · £80/household

  • GP practices
  • Dental services
  • Community pharmacy

Medicines & Medical Devices

£1.9bn

11.2% · £63/household

  • Prescription medicines
  • Vaccination programmes
  • Medical devices and equipment

Mental Health Services

£1.6bn

9.4% · £53/household

  • Community mental health services
  • Inpatient mental health care
  • Psychological therapies

Social Care (Health Element)

£1.5bn

8.8% · £50/household

  • Continuing healthcare
  • NHS-funded nursing care
  • Carer support services

Public Health & Prevention

£0.4bn

2.4% · £13/household

  • Health protection (e.g. infection control)
  • Screening programmes
  • Health promotion

Health spending has more than doubled since 2010/11 (+126% in real terms).

The NHS employs around 1.6 million staff.

There are over 7,000 GP practices across the UK.

Over 1.1 billion prescription items were dispensed in 2023/24.

The NHS treats over 1 million patients every 36 hours.