£2 billion government plan to ‘save the NHS’
pharmafile | December 1, 2014 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Conservatives, NHS, Osborne, UK, balls, election, spending
George Osborne in his Autumn Statement on Wednesday will announce an extra £2 billion funding for the NHS in an attempt to ‘modernise’ the healthcare service.
The pre-election promise of a £2 billion injection mirrors the exact amount that healthcare think tank the King’s Fund had called for less than a week ago – in order to ‘avert a financial crisis’.
Osborne told BBC news he was able to put the cash into frontline health services across the UK as a result of a strong economy, and added that the money was a ‘down payment’.
Hinting at where the costs may be plucked from he referred to some recent news, saying: “I can tell you we can go further and use those fines that have been paid by the banks for a permanent improvement in GP services.”
Osborne is also due to dangle a carrot in two days time that reflects the Conservatives being able to ‘commit billions more to help modernise and transform the NHS over the next Parliament if in power after the general election in May’.
Responding to the announcement, NHS England’s chief executive Simon Stevens says: “Last month the NHS itself came together to chart a new direction for health in this country. People now get the fact that a growing and aging population means we’re going to have to supercharge our work on prevention, on care integration, and on treatment innovation.”
Adding that he had only just reiterated that times are tight and that services are under pressure, Stevens notes: “Of course there will still be difficult choices, but the government has played its part and the NHS will step up and play our part too. Today represents an extremely welcome vote-of-confidence in the NHS’ own five year plan.”
The NHS in England is said to cost over £100 billion annually, or a third of all departmental spending by the government.
Osborne’s pledge is set to be delivered alongside mixed economic forecasts from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility that, according to Reuters, will leave little room for other spending commitments however.
Indeed Labour spokesman for finance Ed Balls adds it is still unclear where the extra money promised by Osborne would actually come from. Labour has promised an extra £2.5 billion pounds of NHS spending, which Balls said would be on top of Osborne’s increase.
Also reacting to the funding boost was Dr Mark Porter, who is chairman at the BMA Council: “There is little doubt that the NHS is under unprecedented pressure from a combination of rising patient demand and contracting budgets.
“Doctors and other healthcare professionals are working hard to deliver first-rate patient care to the public, but they are being undermined by a lack of resources and staff.”
Porter adds the announcement needs to be the start of a “long-term programme of investment into the NHS that is backed by all policymakers”.
Brett Wells
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