Funding has been announced to support the delivery of two million extra NHS appointments, including operations, scans and appointments a year to cut waiting lists across England.
Ahead of her Budget on Wednesday, the Chancellor has confirmed that the NHS will receive the funding needed to deliver 40,000 extra NHS appointments per week, delivering on one of the Government’s First Steps in office to reduce waiting times in the NHS.
This includes an additional £1.8bn the government has invested in elective activity this year since the July Statement.
This will be supported by a significant increase in capital investment, including new capacity, including surgical hubs and scanners.
This will mean thousands of additional procedures and millions of diagnostic tests nationwide, alongside funding for new radiotherapy machines to improve cancer treatment.
Reducing huge NHS waiting lists
In his recent independent investigation into the NHS in England, Lord Darzi highlighted that the NHS is in ‘critical condition’.
Patients across England are waiting too long, with the waiting list at over 7.6 million in August. In the same month, over 280,000 had been waiting for an operation, scan or appointment for over a year.
Today’s announcement is an integral step in reducing the waiting list and puts the NHS on course to meet the commitment that 92% of people wait less than 18 weeks to start treatment in the NHS.
The Chancellor’s budget on Wednesday will set out how this government will fix the foundations to deliver change by fixing the NHS and rebuilding Britain while ensuring working people don’t face higher taxes on their payslips.
It will focus on “investment, investment, investment” to get the economy moving again and demonstrate how this government will take the long-term decisions needed to grow the economy and restore the country’s public services.
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said: “The Chancellor is backing the NHS with new investment to cut waiting lists, which stand at an unacceptable 7.6 million today.
“Alongside extra funding, we’re sending crack teams of top surgeons to hospitals across the country to reform how they run their surgeries, create extra appointments, and make the money go further.”
Extra NHS appointments are part of a huge reform of the health service
Building an NHS fit for the future is one of this Government’s five priority missions.
However, it is clear that alongside sustainable investment, the NHS will need significant reform across the board to be truly transformed.
The Chancellor has therefore confirmed an ambitious reform programme across health and social care in England, including reforming the delivery of elective activity and patient pathways.
Billions of pounds are set to be invested in technology and digital innovations across the NHS to boost productivity and unlock significant savings for the NHS in the long term.
The funding comes after the Government last week launched ‘Change NHS: help build a health service fit for the future’, a national conversation to help develop the 10 Year Health Plan, which will set out our long-term vision for health and the path to delivering the three shifts to reform and transform health: hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention.
Starting this week, the NHS will help people back to health and back to work by sending teams of top clinicians to hospitals across the country to help roll out reforms to cut waiting lists in hospitals – which will start with those in areas of the highest economic inactivity.
