The focus of this week’s spring statement was very firmly on the cost of living crisis: for the NHS, the Chancellor confirmed that the new health and care levy will go ahead, funded by National Insurance, and he increased efficiency targets for the health service.
Our CEO, Jonathan Murphy, gave his reaction, touching on one of the big challenges facing the health service when it comes to its acute recruitment pressures, long-term workforce planning and increasing capacity to deal with the care backlog created by the pandemic.
“The reality is we are no closer to a clear national strategy for investment in primary care infrastructure – a crucial bedrock for primary and community healthcare of the future ‒ five years on from the Naylor review of NHS premises and more than two years since the Health Infrastructure Plan.
“General practice premises are bursting at the seams when a key NHS policy is to recruit social prescribers, clinical pharmacists, physiotherapists and additional healthcare roles in primary care.
“All of these people need places to work, and the British Medical Association was among the organisations calling for the Chancellor to ringfence investment this week to improve and modernise the NHS estate. This will be increasingly important if the NHS is to successfully blend face-to-face and remote care, and its spaces must evolve to accommodate the technology and different ways of working that involves.
“The pandemic, rising cost of living, and the economic impacts of war in Ukraine are mounting pressure on government funds, and it has never been more important to be creating a long-term, sustainable strategy for investment in the space that the NHS needs.”