Will the chancellor finally treat Britain’s health system as an economic asset, not a cost?

It's not about how many times she name-drops the NHS. It's whether the Treasury wakes up to the obvious: you can't grow an economy when people are rotting on waiting lists, staff are burnt out and primary care is barely hanging on.

I've spent years advising GP practices and doctors. The hit to the economy isn't some abstract theory. It's staring us in the face. Practices are flooded with patients sidelined from work by untreated issues, botched referrals or crumbling mental health. These aren't just stats. They're workers stuck in limbo, dragging down productivity. Any "growth plan" that skips this is delusional.

Governments keep playing the same game: health as a mess to mop up, not an investment to fuel the nation. Splashy funding reveals make the news, but without real fixes it's just propping up a sinking ship. We pour in billions, yet outcomes tank and the economy suffers.

Take general practice, the NHS's frontline and cheapest way to keep people healthy. It's teetering. Skyrocketing staff costs, crumbling buildings and dodgy funding streams mean practices are scrambling to stay afloat while demand explodes. When cash gets insecure up front, the fallout is brutal: hospitals overflow, sick days skyrocket and fewer people pull their weight in the workforce.

If this Budget's serious about growth, Reeves has to face the tough calls. Ditch the quick fixes and tackle the rot: clapped-out facilities, knackered staff and the criminal underfunding of prevention and public health.

Prevention's the biggest blind spot. Pure political myopia. Slashing those budgets looks smart short-term, but it's a recipe for ballooning costs and a sicker, less productive country. You can't get richer while getting sicker.

And let's talk straight: all the talk of hiring sprees falls flat without keeping staff happy and funded properly. It's just turnover on steroids. Funds vanishing into bureaucratic black holes? That doesn't build capacity. It starves the front line. Growth isn't about fancy accounting tricks.

Reeves has a shot here to break the cycle: stop treating health like optional welfare and make it core infrastructure, right up there with roads or broadband.

If we're serious about cranking up productivity, getting folks back to work and building a tougher economy, health belongs dead centre in the plan, not shoved to the side. Skimp on this and you're not just letting down the NHS. You're tanking the whole show.

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Vijay Acharya, whose firm has supported GP practices since the inception of the NHS in 1948, has been the proprietor of Charles Rippin and Turner for 24 years.

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