NHS £22.6bn funding boost in England ‘not enough’, health experts warn

Medical experts have warned that the increase in NHS funding in England unveiled in the Budget will not be enough to rebuild the country’s ailing healthcare system and that it will take some time before patients see improvements.

Rachel Reeves last week announced an extra £22.6 billion this year and next for the NHS, which she said was the biggest increase in healthcare spending – barring the Covid pandemic – since 2010.

However, analysis from the King’s Fund shows that much of this money will be absorbed by the NHS’s ambitious, pre-existing recruitment plans, which will see more nurses and doctors on the payroll.

The health think tank’s warning comes as the Prime Minister signaled to financial markets that the government will focus on reforms rather than further tax increases to improve public services.

Siva Anandaciva, chief analyst at the King’s Fund, said: “The investment will deliver some benefits, from additional appointments to upgrades to a small number of aging NHS facilities, but the measures in this Budget alone will not fully deliver the much-needed results. reforms to health care and healthcare services that the government says it wants to implement.”

The NHS budget will grow by 3.8% annually under Labour’s spending plans, but a growing NHS workforce already requires an annual budget increase of 3.6%.

The NHS Long Term Workforce Planpublished last year by the previous government, aims to prevent an expected shortage of hundreds of thousands of employees. Day-to-day spending will also come under pressure from pay deals and rising NHS financial shortfalls.

Reeves told the House of Commons in her Budget speech last week that the NHS was the country’s “most cherished public service of all”. She stressed that “change needs to be felt” by the public, including an “NHS that is there when you need it.”

More than £3 billion of the new funding announced in the Budget has been earmarked to regenerate crumbling neighbourhoods. But the King’s Fund said this would only cover a small part of the maintenance bill for the nation’s hospitals and warned it would take some time before patients felt the difference.

“After a decade of underinvestment in NHS buildings and equipment by previous governments, the cost of the NHS maintenance backlog is a staggering £13.8 billion and far too many buildings and equipment are simply worn out or outdated,” says Anandaciva.

The King’s Fund also found in budget documents that the Government has already taken almost £1 billion from healthcare capital funding this year to cope with day-to-day pressures. The move, which has been completed since the general election, comes despite criticism from Health Secretary Wes Streeting over the transfer of capital to revenue.

“The result of prolonged underinvestment in capital budgets is crumbling buildings, flooded theaters, outdated equipment, a decline in productivity and an immeasurable impact on staff and patient care,” Anandaciva said.

He added: “I hope that the new government breaks with this unsustainable tradition and that this will be the last time we see capital investment raided in the future of the NHS.”

Writing in the Financial times This weekend, Keir Starmer sought to reassure financial markets by saying Labor will focus on reforming public services and economic stability, rather than on additional funding increases.

“Just as we cannot tax and spend our way to prosperity, we cannot simply spend our way to better public services,” the prime minister wrote. He added: “That is why reforms are a key pillar of this government’s agenda.”

Markets initially pushed up government borrowing costs after Reeves’ tax hike budget last week.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has said Reeves may need to raise a further £9 billion to avoid another round of cuts for some struggling public services.

But a Starmer ally has reportedly given the Financial times that the “spending envelope has been set” and that departments “should reform to improve service delivery”.

The Nuffield Trust said last week that the future of the NHS was uncertain. “The funding promised (in the budget) will meet the immediate day-to-day needs of the health service, but will not go far towards the government’s ambitions to rebuild an ailing NHS,” said Becks Fisher, director of research and policy at the trust.

Fisher added that health spending was also inadequate outside the NHS, as councils do not have enough money to keep up with demand for social care: “Increases in local authority budgets are welcome, but they face enormously difficult decisions about where to spend money to meet countless needs. local needs. The £600m social care grant announced for next year will be insufficient to enable councils to keep pace with demand.”