The NHS is facing unprecedented challenges. It might break before it is able to offer patients the care they expect. The NHS’s financial position is worsening because of long-standing and recent issues, including:

• failure to invest in its estate
• inflation
• the cost of post-pandemic recovery
• strikes
• increased sickness absence

Despite great efforts, an increasing number of NHS bodies have been unable to break even. In the year to March, England’s 42 Integrated Care Boards overspent by £1.4 billion in 2023-24.

People look set to spend more of their lives in ill health. Considering this, we are concerned that the NHS is working at the limits of a system which might break before it is again able to provide patients with timely and accessible care.

As part of the next spending review, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England need to identify and explain to @HM Treasury which capital investments across the public sector would be best placed to improve NHS productivity and the prevent serious ill health.

The report's director, Tim Phillips, discusses our findings.

Read our full report on the financial sustainability of the NHS here: https://www.nao.org.uk/reports/nhs-fi...