How energy bill crisis could make dire NHS situation even worse

NHS treatment may have to be rationed this winter because of ever-increasing energy bills, health bosses fear in the face of a mammoth backlog and crises in the A&E and ambulance sectors.

Startling projections reveal some trusts face spending twice, or even three times as much as they did last year on electricity and gas. 

Trusts aren’t covered by Ofgem‘s 80 per cent price cap on electricity and gas, and so are even more vulnerable to surging prices in the coming months. As a result, health chiefs have had to ring-fence £1.5billion to fund the soaring bills.

Rory Deighton, of the NHS Confederation — which represents the healthcare system across England, Wales and Northern Ireland — said: ‘This isn’t an abstract problem.’

He said the solution ‘will either have to be made up by fewer staff being employed, longer waiting times for care, or other areas of patient care being cut back’.

The same organisation previously warned health bosses will inevitably have to make ‘impossible choices’ over the coming months, unless the ‘perilous’ situation is solved with billions more the public purse.

Exactly what areas of patient care could find themselves on the chopping block remains a mystery.

The NHS Confederation said the services cut would vary ‘around the country’, depending on the type of trust.

But new technologies are often the first area to be cut when purse-strings are tightened. 

Diagnostic capacity will also be under threat, despite tests and scans being a ‘key area’ in reducing the Covid-induced backlog that has left nearly 7million patients in England waiting for routine hospital treatment.

NHS Providers warned rising bills take cash away from ‘planned developments for frontline care’. 

At the same time as soaring energy bills, critics have claimed that the NHS could see another £1.8billion ‘raided’ from its own budget simply to meet No10’s proposed pay rise for staff.

Department of Health bosses have rejected these fears, however.  

Analysts predict the health service will need at least another £4billion to account for spiralling costs. As a result, NHS chiefs are demanding another emergency top-up in the coming autumn’s budget.

‘That (£4billion estimate) is before we face a winter of even higher wholesale energy prices,’ the NHS Confederation added.

Danny Mortimer, deputy chief executive of the NHS Confederation said: ‘We know that NHS organisations, like households, across the country are facing huge and rising energy bills in the coldest months of the year.

‘The extra costs of heating and lighting that are needed to run hospitals, GP practices and other NHS facilities on top of this cannot be absorbed within existing budgets without resulting in cuts elsewhere.

‘The incoming Prime Minister must urgently address this dire situation and use their anticipated emergency budget in September to tackle this head on. 

‘Otherwise, they will put NHS leaders in the position of being forced to make impossible choices about which services to cut back over the coming months.’

Right-wing think-tanks have repeatedly described the NHS as being a ‘blackhole of taxpayer money’.

Their argument — that the health service is in dire need of reform, not extra cash — is that its budget has drastically increased under the Conservative Government yet performances have worsened. 

Waiting times for routine ops, such as hip and knee replacements, shot up to record highs were way before Covid reached British shores. But the pandemic, and knock-on effects of lockdown, have seen queues hit an all-time high.

Ambulance response times have gone down the pan, so badly so that even heart attack patients have been left waiting three hours to be taken to hospital. 

A&E performance has also plunged to dire levels, with waiting times worse than ever. Campaigners have called the situation ‘apocalyptic’.  

The NHS in England already gets £150billion a year, compared to roughly £100billion just a decade ago.

Under Boris Johnson, it was promised an extra £30billion a year through the highly-controversial levy to get ‘back on its feet’ after the pandemic. 

But Liz Truss, the frontrunner to replace him as Prime Minister, has already pledged to divert all of that to social care, which is simultaneously being battered by its own crisis. 

Experts brutally described it as being like ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’. 

NHS Confederation also believes this year’s inflation effectively means this is the ‘first real-terms cut in funding since 1997’.

Hospitals were already being urged to turn off lights and equipment when not being used before the energy crisis took hold, as part of a green drive. 

One cash-saving solution floated previously included renovating buildings — with newer and better insulating hospitals requiring less heating to stay warm.

However, school leaders today warned that stretches to their budget means similar building work has been put on hold — which may make it unlikely the NHS will harness any extra cash for improving their buildings. 

To scrape together extra cash, trusts have also been urged to negotiate better energy deals. They currently do this separately and if all were on the best rate, it would save £220million per year, according to analysis from the TaxPayers’ Alliance.

As well as piling extra financial pressure on hospitals, experts fear the cost of living crisis could exacerbate the workforce crisis. 

Damning figures yesterday revealed that one in 10 full-time posts were vacant at the end of June in England, the highest proportion since records began almost five years ago. 

The staffing crisis is one of the key factors fuelling the performances issues. 

Ministers were in May warned there was ‘real risk of a mass exodus’ of staff who can get better-paid jobs in pubs, shops and supermarkets.