Growing costs hamper NHS finances
Healthcare officials have revealed that the NHS in England could be facing a funding gap of up to £2 billion for the next financial year.
Despite NHS budget freezes to keep costs under control, population growth creating a strain on services and higher NHS pensions have meant that the bank balance has come under pressure. Although the NHS has been protected from cuts affecting other government departments, their spending has still been steadily rising.
The Department of Health told BBC News in a statement “The NHS is on track to make £20bn savings this parliament and we are confident that it will continue to make the savings necessary to meet rising demand,” however many experts don’t see how this is possible, with fears that quality of care will be seriously effected.
Money worries
Chris Ham, chief executive of healthcare charity the King’s Fund, said there was a real worry that hospitals could run out of money, with “the increasing pressure hospitals are under to maintain good standards of patient care, access in A&E, short times to get operations done, short cancer waits and balance their budgets at the same time”.
Over 2015/16, approximately £2 billion from the NHS budget will be put into the Better Care Fund, intended to help the NHS and local councils provide more integrated health and social care. Mr Ham is skeptical about the benefits of this however, saying “it’s money that would have gone to paying hospitals so they’re having to find even bigger efficiency savings to balance the books and deliver good standards of patient care. That’s a very, very big ask.”
“There needs to be a longer-term resolution of the funding issues facing the NHS because, after four years of no growth in the budget, it’s hard to see where the savings will come from,” he continues.
Health regulator Monitor adds to the bad news, stating there is a funding gap of just over £5 billion for 2015/16 in the NHS in England’s £78bn commissioning budget for all secondary healthcare – making up about three quarters of its total budget, including hospitals and mental health services.
