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Highlights
- NHS officials have warned that patients are genuinely facing a huge risk.
- The UK government should provide £10 billion every year to avoid the NHS backlog from reaching as high as 13 million people.
- Trust leaders have warned that they will have to cut services if the funding is less than £10 billion next year.
Ahead of a crucial spending review by the UK Government, the top brass of the National Health Service (NHS) has warned that patients are at a huge risk and the health outcome of the public is in the Boris Johnson government’s hands. The review elaborated that unless the government provides £10 billion per year, it would take at least seven years to clear the NHS backlog, which could affect as high as 13 million people.
As per the NHS Confederation and NHS Providers, the £10 billion fund is required to cover the costs related to the pandemic and lessen the backlog in operations and treatments. This additional £10 billion to run the routine services would be over and above the £140 billion budget that is planned already. Less than half of this would be used to cover the additional covid-related costs, and most of the rest will be used to tackle the waiting lists for non-urgent operations and mental health. Record levels have been reached by waiting lists amid the pandemic, with over 5.45 million people waiting for NHS hospital treatment in England.
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Chris Hopson, Chief executive of NHS Providers, has tried to persuade the ministers to realise the seismic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, saying that nothing like this has been experienced in the past 73 years. This has led to NHS leaders wanting around an extra £15 billion next year, in place of the NHS budget growing by £4 billion under the existing settlement. The UK government has asked people to accept and learn how to live with the virus, which means that the impact of Covid-19 on the NHS must be fully recognised by people, which includes its extent, length, and cost of its impact.
According to Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, NHS frontline funding worth approximately £10 billion must be raised to fulfil 2022-23 needs, over and above social care, capital, and central Government Covid costs. If the funding is less than £10 billion next year, then there are concerns that the trust leaders will be obligated to cut services.
In that case, the waiting lists could more than double, according to the NHS Confederation and NHS Providers. Even though best efforts will be made at the frontline, there is distress that the 13 million waiting list is unpreventable despite making desperate attempts to avoid it.
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According to a government spokesperson, the UK Government is dedicated to ensure that the NHS has each and every thing it requires to carry on with providing excellent care of the highest standard to the public, while it deals with the backlogs that have aggregated during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Government has provided a further £29 billion already to contribute towards health and care services, which comprises of an extra £1 billion to address the backlog. The government spokesperson has stated, “This is on top of our historic settlement for the NHS in 2018, which will see its budget rise by £33.9 billion by 2023/24.”
The plan of action to overhaul the long-term funding of the social care system, which PM Boris Johnson claimed to be ready as and when he entered Downing Street in 2019, is yet to be announced along with the NHS funding boost. It is anticipated that the proposal will be based on the decade-old Dilnot review, under which a lifetime cap may be applied on the amount that the individuals would have to pay for health care. The actual figure for the same could be around £100,000, but it is suggested by the independent commission chaired by the economist, Andrew Dilnot, that the appropriate figure would be £25,00-£50,000.
For the past months, discussions have been going on within the UK government regarding health and social care levy, which may potentially raise the employee and employer national insurance, despite some Cabinet Ministers not being convinced. There could be an increase of as much as £12 billion, as some of the amount would be returned to the Government because it would pay it on its own employees, which will include the NHS workforce as well.
Initially, a major proportion of the levy would be kept separately for the NHS. However, as the cost of implementation increases over time, it would be diverted to paying for the social care cap after few years.
Summing up
The announcement on the final figure is anticipated to come out very soon, even though the comprehensive spending review is not due until November. However, according to NHS sources, the talks between the Government and NHS England have been difficult due to a £5 billion-£6 billion gap between both the sides. The Government may have offered to raise NHS funding next year by £4 billion -£5 billion, which would in turn lead to a rise in the budget of DHSC (Department of Health and Social Care) to approximately £145 billion.
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