Billions more for NHS

Special tax even more likely as PM backs new funding plan

THERESA May last night signalled that billions of pounds extra will be ploughed into the NHS as she backed calls for a longterm funding plan.

The Prime Minister said the health service ‘cannot afford to wait’ as she told MPs it would get more money within months as it marks its 70th year.

Mrs May said the Government needed to get away from a pattern of annual budget top-ups. On Sunday, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt called for a ten-year NHS spending deal to end the ‘feast or famine’ of the past two decades – with the possibility of a ring-fenced tax.

Appearing before the Commons liaison committee yesterday, Mrs May said the health service was facing ‘serious cost and demand pressures’ and ‘we can’t afford to wait until next Easter’, when the next spending review is due.

‘I think in this 70th anniversary year of the NHS’s foundation we need an answer on this,’ she added. A funding boost will be a victory for Mr Hunt, as well as Boris Johnson who has called for a spending hike to fulfil the pledge of the Brexit campaign to divert money from Brussels to the NHS.

There has also been acknowledgement within the Tory Party that it cannot fight an election against Labour with an underfunded NHS as a ‘gaping wound’.

However, there will be Cabinet tensions over how any rise is paid, with Chancellor Philip Hammond opposed to the idea of a special ‘NHS tax’. It has been suggested that National Insurance could increase by a penny in the pound.

Mrs May said: ‘This year and in advance of next year’s spending review I do want to come forward with a long-term plan.

‘I want that to be done in conjunction with leaders of the NHS, with clinicians and health experts and the Government will provide a multi-year funding settlement in support of the plan, consistent with our fiscal rules and balanced approach but ensuring the NHS can cope with the rising demand ahead of the spending review.’

The PM said she was ‘eternally grateful to the NHS’ and told the group of select committee chair- men she hopes ‘no one doubts my personal commitment’ to the service. ‘I rely on the NHS every day as a diabetic,’ she added.

Asked if more money was going to be put into the service, she replied: ‘By definition we have already committed to putting more money into the NHS over the coming years so, yes, more money will be going in.’

Mrs May insisted funding ‘isn’t the only answer’ to the health service’s problems and said there needed to be accountability for ‘every pound that is spent’. She added: ‘There is another element, which is about looking at how we can all take more responsibility for our health so that the pressures on the NHS are reduced,’

NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens, who has called for £30billion extra a year, said: ‘The Prime Minister’s announcement of a funded long-term plan for the NHS this year is very welcome, timely and significant.

‘Charting a multi-year path for modern, efficient and sensibly funded health and social care could mean huge gains for cancer patients, mental health services and support for frail older people, as well as the several million nurses, doctors and other care staff who devote their lives to looking after us.’

Spending reviews are intended to give a five-year view of the government’s departmental spending plans but the NHS often needs top-ups. In the Budget last November, Mr Hammond pledged an extra £2.8billion in one- off funding to help it cope with immediate pressures up to 2020.

Mr Hunt will today set out how some of the cash will be used to build new hospital wards and beds. Up to £760million will be spent upgrading hospitals and refurbishing A&E units.