LONDON (Reuters Health) - British Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith said on Monday that the National Health Service system was failing and would not be cured by money alone.

"The problems of the NHS are not just a matter of money. It is the system that is failing," he said in a Party pamphlet reviewing alternative healthcare systems in 20 major western nations.

The report comes two days before the Budget when Chancellor Gordon Brown is expected to announce tax rises to help pay for sustained increases in UK health spending in a bid to catch up with the European average.

Both Brown and Health Secretary Alan Milburn have said they believe that general taxation is the fairest and most efficient way of funding healthcare and have rejected alternative systems.

But Smith warned: "We need to learn from other countries if we are to improve the health service in Britain. If we don't it will be the British people who will suffer, as they suffer now."

He said Labour had increased taxes by £100 billion since they came to office but had failed to deliver any significant improvements.

The pamphlet says that a World Health Organisation review of 190 healthcare systems had found that funding healthcare by social insurance systems, such as in Belgium and Germany, was fairer than Britain's tax-based system.

In support of its argument that money alone does not guarantee good healthcare, it adds that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are among Europe's highest spending countries but have worse health outcomes than England.

The pamphlet does not say which healthcare system the Conservative Party supports though Smith appeared to reject any big switch to private healthcare, saying comprehensive care should be available to all on the basis of need, not ability to pay.

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