THE TORY crack-down on public spending and the welfare state is part of a Europe-wide austerity drive that has triggered general strikes in Spain, Italy and Belgium and growing militancy in Germany.
But fourteen years of Tory rule has put British capitalism far ahead of its European rivals in the attempts to contain health service spending. Their brutal market-style 'reforms' are undermining the unique strengths of the British NHS.
Of course the British health service has always had its highly- visible weaknesses.
As a result of the Tory squeeze, the share of national wealth (6.1%) spent on health care is lower in Britain than any of the established market econoinies, with the sole exception of Greece - where the 5.5% figure is growing as part of a late development of health services.
The lion's share of Britian's apparent 22% real terms increase in NHS spending since 1979 has been consumed by Family Health Services (General Practitioners).
British hospital budgets have grown by only 11.6% in 14 years, an average of just 0.8% a year - far short of the estimated 2% annual increase required to keep pace with growing numbers of elderly people, and rising costs of new medical technology.
Waiting lists
Almost alone in Europe, British hospitals have traditionally coped with inadequate budgets by 'rationing' care through the use of lengthy waiting lists for treatment.
The one million-plus currently queueing for operations in British hospitals almost certainly exceeds the total in the rest of Europe put together But 14 years of cutbacks have also reduced Britain to the lowest bed provision in Europe, with just 5.63 beds per 1,000 population, below Greece at 5.7, Germany at 7.17, France at 9.9, Netherlands at 11.5, and way behind Finland's 13.
However there are real strengths in the British system which have not been copied elsewhere in Europe, and which the Tories are now putting at risk through their market reforms.
As a tax-funded system, delivering health care for the most * TUC march for the NHS: British spending is lowest of advanced economies алломен