Is The Government Right To Make Any Extra NHS Funding Conditional?

Should additional funding for the NHS be conditional?

“Absolutely categorically the NHS will get whatever resources it needs” was what the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak said in March.

Now however, there is apparently a row between the NHS and the Treasury over waiting list criteria that the Government is reportedly trying to impose in exchange for the extra funding.

The official waiting list total for operations stands at 4.4 million as a result of the NHS preparing for the spike in demand as Covid19 spread by ceasing a large proportion of other treatments.

This figure may rise to more than 10 million by the end of the year.

Given the amount of money the Chancellor has borrowed for various employment retention and business grant and loan schemes, should concerns about NHS spending and efficiency be put on the back burner until the crisis is abated? Comment 💬 Like ❤️ Reply 🙂 below.

As part of the deal for extra funding, the Treasury is insisting that the NHS commits to keeping the waiting list down to certain levels by certain dates through private hospitals continuing to do an agreed number of procedures.

One hospital trust chief executive has said: “It’s important to extend the private sector deal because the need for strict infection control procedures means NHS hospitals will only be operating at maybe 60% of normal capacity, which means patients will have to wait longer for surgery they need”.

However, the Treasury believes that much of the £1.2bn spent so far has been wasted because many hospitals did worryingly few operations in the early stages of the pandemic.

The deal the NHS has with private hospitals to help spread the load costs around £400 million per month.

The NHS is insistent that the Treasury needs to continue underwriting this extra cost.

Is it right for the Government to be trying to impose conditions on the NHS whilst the risk of Coronavirus is still extant, especially with a second spike in the autumn widely thought possible?

It has been suggested that the extra capacity afforded by the Nightingale hospitals should be used to help relieve the pressure on existing NHS resources.

If the NHS has the human resources to make use of the extra capacity, should central government fund as much as is needed to address the backlog in healthcare demand as quickly as possible, or should it be a more focused effort whilst the risk of a re-emergence of Coronavirus in autumn and winter months is still very much present?

Other increased costs include enhanced procurement of PPE and the costs of the Nightingale hospitals.

Should the Government be funding these directly as a unique situation, rather than expecting the NHS to fund these additional costs out of existing budgets?

The OBR has stated that the cost to Britain of the last four months’ Coronavirus crisis is approximately £298 billion.

The extra funding figure for the NHS is mooted to be around £10 billion. Given the unprecedented nature of the Coronavirus pandemic, both in medical and social terms, do you think it’s right for the Treasury to try and micromanage NHS operations in this way, for what is a small percentage of overall increased borrowing related to Covid19?

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