Despite the government’s promise to protect the health service and increase budgets, the NHS faces real term funding cuts next year. 

Recently published figures from The Department of Health shows that on average the increase for local NHS bodies will be three per cent. 

However, it has been argued that this figure includes one-off payments for extra dentistry and pharmacy spending as well as cash for local authorities to spend on social care. 

This means that the increase is funding is reduced on average to 2.2 per cent, below the 2.5 per cent inflationary figure currently used by the NHS. 

Labour leader Ed Milliband, “argued that the government was breaking its election promise.”

As part of the government’s reform package, the Department of Health released a series of documents on how the reforms and plans will be implemented in the future. GPs are to be given greater control over much of the NHS budget. Under the reforms GPs will be able to form consortia to arrange and buy care for their patients as previously planned. 

Primary Care Trusts and Strategic Health Authorities will be scrapped and management costs to be cut by 45 per cent.

In light of these proposals, some experts warn that the pace and scale of reforms is too much as financial constraint means the NHS has to find £20bn of savings over the next four years to cope with increasing demand. 

Dr Hamish Meldrum, Chairman of the British Medical Association, said, “The government also seems to have ignored the warnings of the BMA and many others about the pace and scale of these reforms.”

“Change of this magnitude was always going to be a challenge and the worsening financial pressures on the NHS, coupled with the ambitious timescale and lack of detail, make the present strategy very risky.”

“Given the latest inflation figures, we do not accept the government’s claim that it is increasing real term funding for the NHS.”

“The stated three per cent ‘increase’ in funding for Primary Care Trusts includes £1 billion already announced to cover additional social care responsibilities and masks the fact that the hospitals will have to do a lot more work to achieve the same income.”

“Patients across the country are already discovering that local services are being rationed to achieve efficiency savings, and there are likely to be further NHS cuts on a scale we have not seen for many years.”

Nigel Edwards, acting chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said, “The scale of the challenge facing the NHS is immense. NHS organisations are grappling with three major issues, all at the same time: unprecedented efficiency savings, major management cuts and radical structural reforms.”

“There is a real squeeze on hospital budgets that will seriously effect their income. NHS leaders up and down the country are really worried about the prospects for the next two to three years.”

“While we support the objectives of these reforms, we have to get there first. The absolute priority is to be realistic about the dangers of transition and take firm action to avert them so the reforms have a chance of success. We now seem to come too far for there to be a practical way of turning back. The government has moved some way in terms of recognising the issues, but we need to see more.”

Brendan Barber, TUC General Secretary said, “The Conservatives would not even have a share of power if they had not promised to protect the NHS budget and stop top-down re-organisation.”

“Yet today, it’s clear that there will be cuts, top-down organisation and privatisation by stealth as private companies increasingly run parts of a fragmented market-based NHS. And these ‘reforms’ are likely to cost £2-3 billion at a time when health spending is being cut in real terms.”

As government reforms on the NHS continues, fears of patient care and reductions in service will continue despite promises to keep NHS investment in-line with inflation. As cut backs increase, the demand on health care professionals is unlikely to go away. At MPP Locums, we continue to provide a first class service to the NHS. 

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