The NHS was a major winner from Rachel Reeves‘s first Budget as Chancellor as she poured £22.6billion more into the flatlining health service.
With waiting lists soaring, public health struggling and a staffing crisis the ailing system will get billions more thrown at it top improve day-to-day care.
Announcing the Government’s plans for the NHS, Ms Reeves told the Commons: ‘In the spring, we will publish a 10-year plan for the NHS to deliver a shift from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention.
‘Today, we are announcing a down payment on that plan to enable the NHS to deliver 2 per cent productivity growth next year.’
She added: ‘Today, because of the difficult decision that I have taken on tax, welfare and spending, I can announce that I am providing a £22.6 billion increase in the day to-day health budget, and a £3.1 billion increase in the capital budget, over this year and next year.
‘This is the largest real-terms growth in day-to-day NHS spending outside of Covid since 2010.’
But Health Secretary Wes Streeting has been brutally clear that all of this may not be enough, because the NHS is ‘not just on its knees, it’s on its face’.
Announcing the Government’s plans for the NHS, Ms Reeves told the Commons: ‘In the spring, we will publish a 10-year plan for the NHS to deliver a shift from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting (pictured on a visit to St George’s Hospital) has warned the additional funding set to be announced in Labour’s first Budget is unlikely to deliver major improvements
Yesterday he said the injection of funding will help meet Labour’s pledge to deliver two million extra NHS appointments a year.
The Health Secretary went on the offensive after admitting that billions of pounds already set aside by Chancellor Rachel Reeves ahead of the Budget would only ‘arrest the decline’.
He came under fire last night for admitting the additional funding set to be announced tomorrow is unlikely to deliver major improvements and will not prevent patients dying while waiting for care this winter.
On a round of media interviews he told GB News: ‘There’s no beating about the bush about it – whether it’s the size of the waiting list, the fact that people can’t guarantee an ambulance turns up on time, the struggle to get a GP appointment or a dentist, the waits in A&E, the NHS is not just on its knees, it’s on its face.’
The money coming in the Budget will allow the health service to double the number of scanners and start cutting NHS waiting lists in line with Labour‘s manifesto pledges, he added.
‘I think people are realistic. They know that we’re not going to turn the NHS around in just a few months or in a single Budget.’
Both NHS staff and providers have called for more investment, saying the Government’s plans cannot be delivered without additional funding.
Last week Mr Streeting launched a ‘national conversation’ on the Government’s proposed 10-year plan for the NHS.
The Cabinet minister has vowed to ‘rebuild the health service around what patients tell us they need’, while transforming it into a ‘neighbourhood health service’ based more around communities than hospitals.
The plan will also see a greater emphasis on preventing ill-health and harnessing the latest technology as the Government seeks to drive productivity improvements across the NHS.