The King’s Fund – Senior Clinical Leaders Programme

I’ve worked with The King’s Fund for many years, delivering the finance elements of their board and senior leader programmes across the country, including for medical directors and GP commissioners. It was a pleasure to present the Senior Clinical Leaders Programme for The King’s Fund. It’s fascinating to look at how little we all know about the workings of the UK economy and to compare that to our knowledge of the economic workings of our own individual NHS organisations.

The Treasury YouTube channel contains short but fascinating excerpts from speeches, notable figures and research into taxpayer knowledge.

Balance of Payments
The Balance of Payments problem the UK has suffered for many years in shown in the latest Office for National Statistics ONS figures:

Statistical bulletin: Balance of Payments, Q4 2014 pdf

Key points

• The deficit of trade in goods and services for February 2015 widened to £2.9 billion from £1.5 billion in the previous month. The trade position reflects exports minus imports. This widening between January and February is the largest monthly widening since January 2014. Between January and February, exports decreased by £1.0 billion to £41.3 billion and imports increased by £0.3 billion to £44.2 billion.
• The deficit on trade in goods was £10.3 billion in February 2015, widening by £1.2 billion from January. Exports fell by £0.9 billion between January and February, whilst imports rose by £0.3 billion over the same period.
• In detail, exports of goods fell by £0.9 billion to £23.2 billion in February 2015, the lowest since September 2010. The decrease reflects a £1.1 billion fall in exports of manufactured goods; in particular miscellaneous manufactures (down £0.4 billion) and material manufactures (down £0.4 billion). Fuel exports partially offset the fall in manufacturing exports with an increase of £0.3 billion from January.
• Imports of goods rose by £0.3 billion in February 2015, mainly reflecting a £0.4 billion increase in imports of fuels; specifically oil imports (up £0.4 billion) and a £0.2 billion increase in imports of machinery and transport equipment. These increases were partially offset by a £0.2 billion decrease in imports of material manufactures.
• Focusing on trade in oil, the monthly deficit on oil was virtually unchanged at £0.7 billion in February 2015. Despite both exports and imports increasing from the previous month, the value of both transactions in the 3 months to February are the lowest for some time; 3 monthly export levels are the lowest since May 2009 and 3 monthly imports are the lowest since March 2010

Here’s a great YouTube presentation from the ONS which explains the Balance of Payments deficit on the UK’s Current Account:

The Budget
This short video explains why the Treasury holds a Budget each year. It includes archive footage of six former Chancellors on Budget day:

Budget 2015 – a link to the Budget
Budget 2015: documents – the Budget in full

OECD Health Report 2014

OECD Health Statistics- Health Statistics 2014
OECD Health Statistics 2014 – How Does the United Kingdom Compare

Office for National Statistics
Expenditure on Healthcare in the UK, 1997-2012 PDF

• Total healthcare expenditure in the UK, from both public and private sectors, was £150.6 billion in 2013, having increased by 2.7% between 2012 and 2013.
• Total spending per person on healthcare was £2,350 in 2013, more than twice as high as in 1997, when £941 was spent for each UK resident.
• Total healthcare expenditure in the UK accounted for 8.8% of GDP in 2013. Total healthcare expenditure as a percentage of GDP rose sharply between 2008 and 2009, as GDP fell, but has decreased since 2009.
• Public sector spending on healthcare totalled £125.5 billion in 2013 and accounted for 83.3% of total healthcare expenditure in the UK, with the remaining £25.1 billion being private sector spending.
• Public sector healthcare expenditure grew by 3.2% between 2012 and 2013, while private sector expenditure grew by 0.3%.
• Over two-thirds of private healthcare expenditure was household consumption in 2013, with the largest categories of household healthcare consumption being pharmaceutical products, therapeutic appliances and equipment, and hospital services.
• In 2013, current healthcare expenditure was £144.9 billion, which equated to 96.2% of total healthcare expenditure. The remaining £5.8 billion was capital expenditure.

Presentation
2015-04-29 Senior Clinical Leaders Programme – Big Numbers from the workshop PDF

Many thanks to all who attended.