Rachel Reeves’ claim that she is ‘protecting and strengthening’ the NHS with her Budget is overblown, health experts say.
The Chancellor failed to allocate any additional funding for tackling waiting lists, dealing with the cost of doctors’ strikes or covering a potential rise in drug prices.
It means hospitals will have to make cuts to patient care in the event of another walkout by medics as they ‘cannot continue to absorb the cost’, bosses warn.
The health service now faces one of the ‘tougher periods for funding’ in its history with a ‘modest’ increase of 2.2 per cent next year that ‘harks back to the slow growth’ under 2010’s austerity, the Nuffield Trust think tank says.
Meanwhile, ‘stealth tax hikes’ are likely to deter doctors from taking on extra shifts at a time when ‘the NHS needs all the manpower it can get’, medical accountancy firm Ramsay Brown added.
The NHS was only awarded an extra £300million yesterday, which was ring-fenced for spending on new technology.
But this is overshadowed by a £10billion investment in technology over three years that was announced in June’s Spending Review.
The NHS now needs to do ‘an awful lot’ with the money it has, the Nuffield Trust said, including improving access to GPs and cutting waiting lists as Labour promised at the general election.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves (centre), Health Secretary Wes Streeting (left) and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer meet staff at the University College London Hospital after she delivered her Budget.
The King’s Fund think tank expressed a similar view, saying the overall cash available will ‘help the health service just about keep its head above water as it battles a long list of financial challenges’, citing rising demand, industrial action, redundancy payments and potential drug price rises, which are being negotiated with pharmaceutical firms and the United States in an effort to appease Donald Trump.
Ms Reeves said she will freeze prescription charges at £9.90 and allow private firms to fund new Neighbourhood Health Centres, which will bring GPs, pharmacies and dentists together in 250 ‘one-stop shops’.
Some money previously allocated to the Department of Health and Social Care for future years will be brought forward to cover one-off redundancy payments at NHS England and local health boards, in the hope the lower salary bill will save £1billion a year over the long-term.
Resident doctors strikes are costing the NHS around £250million each time, while a 5 per cent rise in drug prices beyond what is already expected would cost an additional £700million by 2028/29, the Office for Budget Responsibility says.
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: ‘Much of the UK government rhetoric today is focused on how the Budget is prioritising the NHS over other areas.
‘NHS leaders don’t take this for granted, but the reality is that the NHS budget in England is under significant pressure from rising demand for care, ongoing strike action and the threat of higher drug prices as highlighted by the Office for Budget Responsibility.
‘In particular, local services cannot continue to absorb the costs of ongoing strike action by the BMA without consequences to patient care.’
Dr Tom Dolphin, chair of the British Medical Association council, said: ‘These constraints on health spending will have consequences.
‘There has been no allocation given in this Budget on restoring pay and ending disputes with doctors, a measure which would have not only prevented further disruption but kept doctors in the country, making the most of the skills we have already invested in.
‘4,000 doctors left the country to practice abroad last year. Without a financial plan to keep them, these Budgets represent a penny-wise, pound-foolish attitude.’
Daniel Elkeles, chief executive of NHS Providers, said it was ‘possibly not a realistic figure’ to only fund a 2.5 per cent pay rise for non-doctor staff ‘when welfare benefits and pensions are going up by around 4 per cent’.
