The Budget and Healthcare

I chose to speak on health not only because it‘s a personal passion but also because of huge amount of casework I receive relating to the NHS; I think everyone knows the state the NHS is in. I have spent a good chunk of the last eight years as a county councillor scrutinising local health and care services and I frankly got fed up of watching local systems trying to fix were fundamentally national problems: the vacancy rates, the sickness rates, the increasing levels of complexity caused by a nation in poorer health. Poorer health that is often a direct result of austerity.

In many of the constituency villages, people tell me about the difficulty they have getting an appointment in their home village. Particularly for people relying on public transport, not having home village appointments available is a real struggle which leaves people at risk of conditions worsening. This goes against everything we know to be best for patients and the NHS - early help, at the right place and at the right time. But last week’s budget gave me hope – hope that we can build a real Neighbourhood Health Service and hope that we can make everyone’s health better. The budget showed that the new Government is committed to focusing on what matters most – the patients.

More specifically, the Chancellor announced a £22bn increase in total health and social care revenue and capital funding as part of a two-phase Spending Review. On top of this, NHS England's ring-fenced revenue budget will increase by 4.7% this year to £181.4bn and then another 3.3% next year to £192bn.

Importantly, the Chancellor confirmed that this would go towards funding ‘day-to-day’ NHS budget. In real terms, this will cut waiting times with 40,000 extra elective appointments a week and build capacity for more than 30,000 additional procedures.

The Budget also addressed real practical issues that prevent medics working effectively; the Government has committed to investing more than £2bn in NHS technology and digital to run essential services and improve NHS productivity. This will free up staff time, ensure all Trusts have Electronic Patient Records, improve cyber security and enhance patient access through the NHS App. The budget also commits to upgrading 200 GP surgeries, making better use of space in buildings, increasing productivity and helping GPs deliver more appointments to patients.

Ultimately, the extra funding for NHS services allocated in the budget means that the NHS will become a service which is accessible.