The health service will receive a £22.6 billion cash injection over two years, the chancellor has announced, in what she calls the biggest non-Covid spending increase since 2010. But health experts say patients may not feel the impact if much of the increase were to happen. are offset by wage increases and higher healthcare costs.
Announcing the “down payment” on the government’s 10-year plan for the NHS, due in spring 2025, Rachel Reeves said the NHS is the country’s “most cherished public service” and that the extra funding government would help reduce waiting lists.
“This is the largest real growth in daily NHS spending outside of Covid since 2010,” she said. “Because of this record injection of funding, because of the thousands of extra beds we have secured, and because of the reforms we are making across our NHS, we can now start reducing waiting lists more quickly and move closer to our target. that waiting times should not exceed 18 weeks, by delivering on our promise of 40,000 additional hospital appointments per week.”
Overall, the Treasury said, the average annual increase in the daily NHS budget was 4%, while the overall increase for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) was 3.4%.
Reeves also announced a “record” £3.1 billion biennial increase to the department’s capital budget, an average annual increase of 10.9%. This includes £1 billion to address the repair backlog and address issues with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), £1.5 billion in funding for new surgical hubs and diagnostic scanners and £70 million for new radiotherapy machines.
Health experts welcomed the extra funding, but warned that more investment in the NHS would be needed before patients would notice the difference. Siva Anandaciva, chief analyst at think tank King’s Fund, said: “The healthcare spending announced today is unlikely to be enough to see patients see a real improvement in the care they receive.”
While the budget increase would help support services, “it is unlikely that care will improve dramatically for the rest of this year, and certainly not overnight,” he added, because much of the £22 An additional .6 billion would be absorbed by pay rises for NHS staff and the rising costs of delivering care.
While the additional funding for the capital budget has also been welcomed, the £3.1 billion is considered a drop in the bucket compared to the £13.8 billion in backlog of NHS maintenance costs for buildings and equipment, and therefore only a modest down payment on what is needed to tackle unsafe and outdated NHS facilities.
Saffron Cordery, the deputy chief executive of NHS Providers said the Budget brought a “welcome boost” to NHS trusts, but years of underinvestment and severe staff shortages left all parts of the NHS in a “very difficult” position.
She said: “Almost £14 billion is needed to tackle the huge backlog of NHS repairs. Vital parts of the NHS are literally falling apart, compromising the quality of care and sometimes the safety of patients and staff. The devil is often in the detail and it will be crucial to ensure that welcome funding increases go where they are needed, including to reduce waiting times for mental health and community services and improve ambulance performance.
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There was widespread consternation that the additional £600 million announced for social care was significantly less than the NHS has received, especially when care providers face additional costs from changes to national insurance and minimum wage increases, making the difficult financial position they find themselves in even worse.
Also announced in the Budget was a new duty of £2.20 per milliliter on vape liquid, plus an additional one-off increase in tobacco duty to maintain the price differential and avoid encouraging smoking.
A consultation was announced about the possible extension of the tax on sugary drinks. This could lead to a reduction in the percentage of sugar allowed in a drink before the levy comes into effect, and to the introduction of a third, highest level for the most sugary products.
The levy could be extended to milkshakes and other dairy drinks. Some of these may contain a sugar content of more than 10%, but were exempt from the levy when it was introduced in 2018.
Matthew Bazeley-Bell, deputy chief executive of the Royal Society for Public Health, said a one cent reduction in alcohol duty on draft beer in pubs, alongside increases for other drinks, was the right approach and reflected the difference in harm between drinking in a pub and drinking strong alcohol purchased elsewhere. “This is a welcome step in the right direction,” he said.