Wales to get £110m slice of Boris’ big NHS cash injection
THE Welsh Government has confirmed it will receive £110m to spend on the health service in a one-off “NHS cash injection”.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Sunday that hospitals across the country would benefit from a one-off £1.8bn cash payment, £110m of which will be spent in Wales.
Details of where it will be spent have not yet been confirmed.
A Welsh Government spokesman said: “Decisions about how all new funding can best be spent in Wales for Wales will be made by our cabinet.”
The Welsh Government also highlighted its concern over the uncertainty of the revenue budget for 2020, calling it “unprecedented and completely unacceptable”.
“The UK Government’s sustained austerity agenda has led to substantial, year-on-year cuts to our overall budget,” said the spokesman.
“The current chaos at the head of the UK Government means we still do not know what our revenue budget will be after April 2020.
“We continue to call on the UK Government to end its damaging policy of austerity and to provide immediate clarity about future funding arrangements.”
Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns said: “While it is the responsibility of the Welsh Government to spend the money as they see fit, I urge ministers in Wales to use this extra money, along with a £1.2bn cash boost in 2018, to improve the NHS and deliver better health outcomes for the people of Wales.”
The £1.2bn Wales received in 2018 was part of Theresa May’s promise to boost the NHS budget through the Long Term Plan.
In England, 20 hospitals are expected to benefit from the cash payment, at a cost of £850m.
The hospitals will see a range of upgrades, including a new women and children’s hospital in Cornwall, new cancer diagnostic and assessment centres, as well as a new adult mental health unit in Manchester.
The money will also be used to clear a backlog of existing upgrade work and infrastructure projects across the NHS. But Labour accused Mr Johnson of misleading voters.
The Prime Minister said his latest high-profile announcement from the Government represented genuine “new money” for the service.
However, shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth said ministers were now simply releasing funds which had previously been blocked.
Downing Street insisted the money was new, with £850m going to 20 hospital upgrades, while £1bn was for capital spending.
However, the PM’s official spokesman acknowledged some of the money would “allow existing upgrades to proceed”.
Meanwhile, the Government has guaranteed “full plans” are in place to deliver an unhindered supply of medicines in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
Speaking to ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “I guarantee that we now have all plans in place to make sure that the NHS will be prepared whatever the Brexit scenario.”
He added: “There are 12,000 medicines that are generally prescribed, licensed to be prescribed in Britain, and in normal times there are always a handful which are in short supply and we are constantly, in fact we have a unit within the department which constantly works on these to make sure there is always that unhindered flow and the plans we have got are for that to continue exactly as normal through a no-deal Brexit if that is what is necessary.”
Mr Hancock said: “The thing is, in the health service, one of the things I have learned as Health Secretary is that this is a risk-based business. Keeping people alive is very hard work. This is what hospitals do all the time.
“What I can guarantee to you is that we have full plans in place to deliver the unhindered supply of medicines and to make sure the NHS runs as effectively as it does today through any Brexit scenario.”
A Welsh Government spokesman confirmed the UK Government leads on the continued supply of medicines in the event of a no-deal Brexit, and arrangements for the supply of medical devices and consumables are made on a UK and a national basis.
In addition, NHS Wales has acquired a warehouse for storing extra medical devices and consumables to ensure services continue to run smoothly.