May’s £20 bn NHS gift will only make up ‘lost ground’

A £20BILLION annual NHS windfall promised by Theresa May will only make up “lost ground”, rather than significantly improve healthcare.

A hospital managers’ report says the vast majority of the Prime Minister’s 70th anniversary “birthday present” will go on repairing dilapidated hospitals and meeting waiting time targets.

Last month Mrs May announced the £114billion NHS budget would rise by an average of 3.4 per cent annually, paid for by a “Brexit dividend” and possibly tax rises. But analysis by NHS Providers says this will not drive change and innovation but merely bring basic performance up to an acceptable level.

The report finds that just to achieve the 18-week target for consultant referrals, enshrined in the NHS Constitution, would cost £950million a year for three years and ending logjams in A & E would cost £900million more a year.

Hospital managers say they will have to spend the cash on repairs that have been deferred because of lean budgets, and on restoring staffing levels.

One chief executive said he had to close his A & E department to new patients because all the lifts designed to accommodate beds had broken down.

Saffron Cordery, the NHS Providers’ deputy chief, said 3.3 per cent of the 3.4 per cent increase would be required “just for the NHS to stand still”.

“The report highlights the scale of the challenges the NHS faces in recovering the ground lost to the deepest financial squeeze in NHS history,” she said. “We would be fooling ourselves to think there are shortcuts to recovery.”