Extra millions for NHS ‘will go on doctors’ pay and hospital repairs’
MILLIONS of pounds from the £20billion NHS funding boost will go towards repairing crumbling hospitals and a pay rise for doctors, experts have warned.
Last month Theresa May pledged the investment to mark the NHS’s 70th anniversary this year, but a report claims at least £135million will be spent on doctors’ pay.
Doctors are hoping for a rise of at least 2 per cent – £2,000 a year for an average consultant – after a generous pay deal was agreed for nurses last month.
The report by NHS Providers – an organisation representing hospitals and ambulance services – also warns that at least £913million a year will be ‘swallowed up’ in building repairs, putting extra beds on wards and replacing outdated IT systems.
Last month the Prime Minister announced she would be investing an extra £20billion into the NHS until 2023, but the report warned that the public had ‘unrealistic expectations’ as to how far the money would go.
It states: ‘Recovering NHS performance risks swallowing up new funding. Our view is recovering lost ground would take up much if not most of the additional NHS spending.’
It claims this means there will be very little left to improve cancer care, drive down waiting times and hire additional frontline staff. Niall Dickson, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents health service managers, said: ‘One of the greatest dangers we now face is unrealistic expectations. While everyone is rushing about trying to spend new money, the reality is that we have some really tough decisions ahead. We cannot do it all, and we need to admit that.’
The doctors’ union, the British Medical Association, is locked in negotiations over pay, and a deal is expected to be announced imminently.
It has argued that doctors should be granted a rise of at least 2 per cent in line with nurses and other NHS staff. This expectation will dismay many members of the public who had hoped the Government’s extra money would go towards frontline care. A GP earns on average £100,000 a year while hospital consultants are typically on £92,000, which excludes overtime and performance bonuses.
Saffron Cordery, of NHS Providers, said: ‘This report highlights the scale of the challenges the NHS faces in recovering the lost ground that has built up over the longest and deepest financial squeeze in NHS history. We would be fooling ourselves to think there are any simple shortcuts to recovery.’
‘Rushing about trying to spend money’