The Financial Crisis: What Affect Did It Have On People’s Health?

champion_duckNoel Park Primary School 30 November 2018

You don’t normally think about money affecting health- not directly, anyway. In the UK, we don’t have to worry too much about our healthcare since we have the NHS and all of our treatments and hospital care is for free, unlike in many other countries where you need to build up good medical insurance.

So you would think that good care would have continued in spite of a financial crisis, right? Wrong!

During the financial crisis, and to some extent in recent years too, there were constraints for all companies, the NHS included. This meant that lots of tough decisions needed to be made around what the NHS could afford to pay if they wanted to avoid long waiting lists, poorer care and greater costs. During the recession, a 15 billion pound budget shortfall was expected (which means they had access to £15 billion pounds less than they had budgeted for). That’s a massive amount!

And it of course meant that they needed to cut jobs to save money, which impacted on medical care and services.

There were lots of others ways it affected health too:

It had a massive effect on mental health and suicide rates. Lots of people lost their jobs and their homes, which lead to an increase in stress and depression. It is estimated that there were possible 30- 40,000 additional suicide attempts during the recession period. (Source: http://www.awp.nhs.uk/media/757861/policyreport-3-suicide-recession.pdf)
It affected nutrition, as many people could not afford to sustain the diets they had previously.
Alcoholism also increased as an impact of stress and anxiety.

There is still a lot of talk about the NHS being in debt. Do you think this is as a result of the 2008 financial crisis or are there other reasons?

Comments (15)

Olivia @ Topical Talk
30 Nov 2018

I'm pleased that the financial crisis has got you thinking about a different but interconnected issue and I can see you have been curious about this and done your research. Well done!
fairminded_pineapple | Notley Green Primary School B
30 Nov 2018

just read it and i have to say please write more that is how good it is
cheerful_leaves | Michael Faraday School | United Kingdom
01 Dec 2018

Wow I've learned a lot of detailed facts that I didn't even know I didn't know that the financial crisis affected peoples health very good key information.
entertaining_tangerine | St Gregory's Catholic Primary School B| United Kingdom
01 Dec 2018

I meant did you use any other sources ?
sceptical_honeydew | Boston Spa Academy | United Kingdom
02 Dec 2018

I love how your thinking other ways than just physical health
decisive_dog | Evelyn Street Primary School A
03 Dec 2018

Wow! This really helped! Good job on this work!
placid_meerkat | Evelyn Street Primary School A
04 Dec 2018

I love how your going out your way to do some great research. Well done!
ethical_brain | St Joseph's Catholic Primary School, Northfleet
04 Dec 2018

I really like how you wrote this

post because you add a lot of information that explains what
is happening.
selfreliant_blackberry | Notley Green Primary School
06 Dec 2018

it affected national heath because the NHS and the hospitals lost money
radical_king | Ormiston Bushfield Academy A | United Kingdom
10 Dec 2018

I think that the 2008 financial crisis has had an effect on the NHS and healthcare around the world because if the NHS cannot afford the research to find medication for diseases, then more people will die. Also, it has had an effect on other people who had lost their jobs to save money as they have developed a mental health issue.
independent_violin | Bruche Primary School | United Kingdom
11 Dec 2018

I think that was a very useful post.
secure_hedgehog | Noel Park Primary School
14 Dec 2018

The financial crisis had an impact on everyone because ,most people store money In banks and the money in the banks are all lost because banks will have to close down . This is extremely unhelpful because there is no place to store money. Also money looses its value because it is being printed so much in one day that it looses its worth.
faithful_dragonfly | Noel Park Primary School
14 Dec 2018

I think that its having a huge effect on our health because the NHS need more supplies to supplies for the hospitals so then we can't be cured or fixed because the NHS don't have the supplies to make us better.
capable_wombat | Noel Park Primary School
14 Dec 2018

the effects on people who are suffering from losing money which could have been savings for medicals.
honorable_penguin | Portobello High School
17 Dec 2018

Great post! I thought it was really interesting. In answer to your question, I think that it is the fault of the financial crisis because when the banks failed, the government had to bail them out using money from taxes that would have gone to the NHS and schools etc. But it could have been something else as well.