Insane
Sir: Auberon Waugh promises (Another voice, 30 January) to deliver facts, facts, facts in the finger-jabbing manner of Grad- grind or possibly Tyson. However, despite his satisfaction at revealing that expendi- ture on the Health Service soared from £13.3 billion in 1981-2 to £18.8 billion in 1986-87, to calculate this as a rise of 41 per cent is statistically naïve.
If the expenditure is adjusted to account for inflation, then the £13.3 billion in 1981 was actually worth £17.2 billion and the increase, as compounded over the five years, represents a growth of only 1.8 per cent. Given the actual growth rate of other values, such as the All Share Index, which enjoyed a compound annual growth rate in the equivalent period of 17 per cent, the increase in expenditure on the National Health Service is indeed, as Mr Waugh incorrectly concluded, 'catastrophic and insane'.
Edward Whitley
58 Sutherland Place, London W2
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