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Do we really need repeated statements from highly paid officers at NHS England to tell us that if we freeze public spending on health for a period of 10 to 15 years there's going to be a bit of a funding gap? I'd kind of worked that out for myself, which is why I'm not in favour of doing it.

By my "back of an envelope" calculations, if we have a relatively modest recovery over the next period with average GDP growth of 1.5% p.a., and maintain health spending at current levels then we're looking at a fall in our spend on health as a % of GDP to around 6.9%. That'll be the lowest of the G8 nations, probably the lowest in the EU.

Makes you proud to be British. At least the Daily Mail readers might stop worrying about "health tourists" I suppose.