NHS gets its £350m... but only for this winter

Health chiefs warn of cuts to come and 5m on waiting lists with rescue package insufficient to plug gaps

THE NHS will get a £2.8billion cash boost – but health chiefs said it is not enough to avoid “difficult” decisions and longer waiting times.

The hospitals package includes an immediate £350 million injection to tide the health service through this winter – the same sum that was promised per week on the “Brexit bus”.

Health chiefs last night said they were disappointed and would meet next week to begin “difficult” decisions about what services can be delivered.

Following repeated pleas from the NHS for extra money, Philip Hammond said he had taken the “exceptional” decision to inject extra funding, above previous plans.

The investment will mean an extra £350 million in revenue funds this winter, followed by £1.6billion more in 2018-19 and £900million in 2019-20. In addition, £3.5billion has been set aside for capital investment, to modernise services and tackle a backlog of repairs. However, the £1.6billion revenue boost for next year falls short of the £4billion demanded by health chiefs, who had said 5million patients could be on waiting lists without the funds.

Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS medical director, described the situation as “worrying”. Sir Bruce, who will retire from his position at the end of the year, said his personal view was that the boost was insufficient to plug a funding gap. He tweeted: “Will force a debate about what the public can and can’t expect from the NHS. Worrying that longer waits seem likely/unavoidable.”

Meanwhile, Sir Malcolm Grant, the chairman of NHS England, said the funds would “go some way towards filling the widely accepted funding gap” but signalled future cuts.

“We can no longer avoid the difficult debate about what it is possible to deliver for patients with the money available,” he said, adding that the board of NHS England would lead the discussions next week.

The Chancellor also committed to pay rises for nurses, midwives and paramedics. But he said the deal was conditional on reform of the current system, which gives automatic rises linked to length of service.

The King’s Fund said the money was a “welcome shot in the arm” but less than the £4billion needed next year. Richard Murray, the fund’s director of policy, said: “Even with this additional funding, the service will struggle to meet key targets and provide the investment needed in services such as general practice and mental health.”

Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospitals, said the sums were “disappointing” and called for a longer term funding plan.

“Tough choices are now needed and trade-offs will have to be made,” he said, though he added that any extra investment was welcome.

Nigel Edwards, Nuffield Trust chief executive, added: “As we and two other leading think tanks calculated, the figure really needed next year to get the NHS on a permanently stable footing would have been at least £4billion. Today’s pledges fill about half of this.

“The new money levels off fast: the year after next, the NHS will again face limited additional funding, and we may find ourselves staring down the barrel once again.”

Rachel Power, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: “This level of funding will not halt the slide in NHS performance, in which patients are waiting longer for surgery, being treated on trolleys in corridors, and increasingly being threatened with having to leave their homes just to receive day-to-day care.”