A new study has discovered that British patients are being denied surgery because of deficits in health-care budgets.

The disturbing scenario has raised doubts on NHS as unsafe for the country, with it again moving centre stage in the run-up to the general election.

A 130 million pound (S$273.7 million) shortfall in National Healthcare System (NHS) primary care trusts, which fund hospitals in England, has resulted in a reduction in surgical operations along with calls to close accident and emergency (A&E) departments, the study revealed.

However, in reality, the UK's financial position is currently in such a dreadful condition that the NHS needs to be substantively scrutinizing its current working and make repairs, irrespective of who wins the next general election.

The joint analysis by think-tank Civitas and The Guardian newspaper examined figures from the public board meetings of 100 trusts, discovering more than a third of the trusts are running deficits.

NFR reveals that the next Government must liberate health provision from the costly and counterproductive world of top-down and un-innovative state control.