The UK, as many other countries, faces significant challenges to its healthcare system. A
combination of complex drivers are coming together to create the conditions where the
current systems will fail. Increasing life expectancy means more people will be requiring
support for longer – and many of them will suffer from chronic diseases which are age
related such as diabetes and stroke which are particularly expensive to treat. Other lifestyle
–linked problems such as growing obesity levels put further pressure on a system which
already consumes around 10% of GDP – yet this burden will have to be borne by a shrinking
taxpayer base as the population distribution ages. Expectations have risen since the
inception of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1947 but continuing to deliver a broadbased
package of care free at the point of delivery without incurring crippling financial costs
is likely to become impossible in the years to come. Radical innovation will be forced upon
the sector.