A decrease of 3.7% (£336.6 million) from £9.2 billion in 2017 • In 2018, 1.1 billion prescription items were dispensed in the community. • In 2018, £8.8 billion was the cost of prescriptions dispensed in the community. Last year more than £156bn was spent on health across the UK - about 12 times the figure that was spent 70 years ago. But that too is being missed, while waiting lists for routine treatments are rising.In England it has topped 4.4 million - the highest on record. But given the cost to the NHS of such a concession many doubt this is likely.There are three key targets for hospitals: covering A&E, cancer care and routine operations, such as knee and hip replacements.All parts of the UK have been struggling to hit them.The way they are measured differs between the UK nations.The A&E target is the most directly comparable - in that each nation expects 95% of patients to be treated or admitted in four hours.Performance is worse in Wales and Northern Ireland than it is in England and Scotland.Scotland is the last nation to have hit the target - back in the summer of 2017.Meanwhile, in cancer care patients are meant to start treatment within 62 days of an urgent GP referral. NHS England to fund 'life-changing' haemophilia drug. Fears have been raised that US firms would want the NHS to agree more lucrative deals - they get more money for their drugs in their own country. Follow. But the lack of staff in the NHS is not just because of less spending, ... Scotland and Wales were satisfied with services in 2018. These are external links and will open in a new window The NHS faces a number of challenges and often tops the list of concerns voiced by the public, but what state is it actually in? 23 MAR 2018 The biggest rises were seen under the Labour governments between 1997 and 2010 when the average annual rise was about 6%.This dropped to 1% under the post-financial crisis coalition government between 2010 and 2015 - a figure which then rose under the majority Conservative government of recent years.The Conservatives have said their five-year funding plan for the NHS will see the budget rise by an average of 3.4% a year above inflation. Spending on medicines rises by 8% in England. As the number of older people continues to rise so will the cost to the NHS. It means today about 30p out of every £1 spent on public services goes on health.Ever since the early 1950s the budget has been increasing, but the scale of those rises has varied quite considerably.The average rise has been just over 4%. 25 NOV 2016. Number of prescriptions dispensed in the community rises, but cost falls. Our vision is to harness the power of information and technology to make health and care better Last edited: 11 December 2019 4:17 pm Medical advances have meant that people are living longer. Source: Department for Health and Social Care, Full Fact researchSource: NHS England, Information Analysis Directorate, ISD Scotland, Stats WalesSource: NHS Digital; high risk backlog means urgent attention is required to avoid serious injury, whilst low risk means lowest attention required. All this contributes to what health economists call health inflation - the idea that the cost of providing care outstrips the normal rise in the cost of living across the economy.This is why health has tended to receive more generous rises than other areas of government spending.But despite this the UK has been left trailing some other parts of Europe when it comes to spending as a proportion of GDP, which is a measure of the size of the economy.It is a gap that has widened since the previous Labour government was in power from 1997 to 2010.Comparison of spending on public and private health and care as a % of GDP, 2017The result, as you would expect, is fewer beds, doctors and nurses per patient in the UK than the big spenders, which tend to tax people more.