A dog’s life for NHS funding
Posted on 13. May, 2010 by Claire in Health, Industry, News
Our new Tory Liberal coalition Government has today announced their health policy, the focus of which is to maintain NHS spending with real term increases. The media reports that this will keep the budget in line with inflation at the current £100 billion annual spend. So as anticipated, the NHS will no longer grow at the rate that we have been used to, which, let’s not forget, went from £33 billion in 1997 to its present level. As future costs rise, primarily driven by an ageing population, the NHS and the health of humans are in for a big squeeze.
So as we await further detailed announcements on health and the Camerons settle into Number 10, I was distracted into thinking whether, President Obama style, our new Prime Minister might be bringing a pet or two with him. That then led me to ponder animal health, particularly pet health, and whether this sector was going to feel any pinch over the next few austere years. Here are some UK facts and figures…
- £500 million spent on medicines for animals each year
- Annually £550 million spent on buying cats and dogs
- Eight million dogs and the same number of cats reside with us
- One in two households own a pet which, excluding fish, is 24 million pets
- £2 billion is spent on pet food (the manufacturing of which employs 8,000 people in the UK)
While the stats are nowhere near the 7.7% of UK GDP that the NHS spends caring for up to 60 million people, they are significant. I’m currently not a pet owner, although many friends are. One such friend was slightly embarrassed to admit that they spent close to £5,000 in one year to look after a very sickly rescue cat. My friend also admits that this ‘investment’ far outstrips the money they spend on their own or other human’s health. While I attribute no blame or shame for this action it does give me pause for thought. People certainly love their pets and act with their wallets accordingly.
I look forward to seeing if Number 10 can accommodate a pet like Obama’s Portuguese water dog, Bo, and my gut feel is that the animal health market will continue to grow unhindered by the economic pressures we face.
So maybe a “dog’s life” might not be such a bad thing for our NHS!
