More cash or more cuts for health service

THE NHS will have to cut back the services it provides unless it receives a cash injection – even if that might kill patients, the head of its finance watchdog has said.

Jim Mackey, the chief executive of NHS Improvement, said the NHS had already “de-prioritised” planned operations, and would need to consider further cutbacks without extra funding.

“If there’s no more money in the Budget I think we need to be sitting down and agreeing publicly and as a collective what’s actually possible to deliver within that resource. We can’t do everything,” said Mr Mackey.

In March the head of the health service told NHS trusts to make a “trade-off” between waiting times for planned, or elective, surgery, and ensuring access to the most urgent treatment. “The forward view update effectively de-prioritised elective care,” Mr Mackey said, adding that a wider debate was needed before further rationing decisions were taken.

He told the NHS Providers conference in Birmingham that some of the decisions already taken would cost lives.

“It’s easy to de-prioritise elective but if you’re 85 and you can’t walk, we’re going to shorten your life. That’s wrong, it’s not what we all want as a society,” Mr Mackey said. He suggested the NHS was nearing the limits of what it could do within current funding.

A Department of Health spokesman said: “Spending on the NHS is in line with most other European countries, and the public can be reassured that the Government is committed to continued investment in the health service, including an extra £8billion over the next five years.”