Boris Johnson’s £1.8bn for the NHS isn’t what it seems – just ask the trusts

[Northerner]

Boris Johnson successfully captured the weekend headlines with his announcement of a £1.8bn “cash injection” for the NHS capital budget – which covers buildings and equipment. But the prime minister quickly became bogged down in allegations that the £1bn pledged upfront this year wasn’t quite the boost it appeared. The truth is that NHS leaders across the country won’t see this billion as extra funding, but rather the removal of a freeze on cash they already have.

That’s because it matches a pot of cash that NHS trusts already earned last year, in return for stretching their efficiency to breaking point, on a subsequently broken promise that they could invest it.

Three years ago, as overspends by hard-pressed trusts threatened to blow a hole in the entire health department budget, the Treasury devised a scheme that involved encouraging the minority of trusts who were able to break even to cut back further still, in order to deliver a surplus. That surplus would then offset the far bigger and unavoidable deficit that would be racked up by the rest.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/05/boris-johnson-nhs-trusts

 

[grovesy]

Not surprised one little bit.

 

[mikeyB]

I’m still waiting for the £350m a week for the NHS that is supposed to be in the plans after Brexit happens. Where has that promise gone?

Smoke, mirrors and lies.

 

[Bruce Stephens]

I’m still waiting for the £350m a week for the NHS that is supposed to be in the plans after Brexit happens. Where has that promise gone?

350m a week is 18.2 billion. Which is just a bit less than the 20 billion (or thereabouts) already promised as the biggest cash injection to the NHS in all time and space (even though when taking annually it's rather less than the average increase over the history of the NHS).

I'm fairly sure that (already agreed, fairly modest) increase will be reheated and reused endlessly as the delivery of the bus promise.

 

[Bronco Billy]

I’m still waiting for the £350m a week for the NHS that is supposed to be in the plans after Brexit happens. Where has that promise gone?

Smoke, mirrors and lies.

No-one has ever promised the NHS would receive £350 million every week. I assume you’re referring to ‘that’ poster on the bus. It didn’t make any such claim.

 

[grovesy]

No-one has ever promised the NHS would receive £350 million every week. I assume you’re referring to ‘that’ poster on the bus. It didn’t make any such claim.

No but many people thought it had though.
Having been in the NHS for decades I know that all politicians have used it as a pawn,

 

[Northerner]

No-one has ever promised the NHS would receive £350 million every week. I assume you’re referring to ‘that’ poster on the bus. It didn’t make any such claim.

It's stretching it a bit to suggest that the two were not intended to suggest a direct link in the general public's mind 🙄 'Let's fund the NHS instead' is no different to 'Let's spend it on the NHS instead' in most people's minds. And that's without even mentioning that the £350m figure is totally bogus to start with!

 

[Nomad722]

Boris and his cronies are hypocrites; who was it who cut the police numbers and reduced the NHS budget? We all know who.🙄

 

[Matt Cycle]

No-one has ever promised the NHS would receive £350 million every week. I assume you’re referring to ‘that’ poster on the bus. It didn’t make any such claim.

I agree with Northerner. You can argue semantics all you like but it's disingenuous not to acknowledge what was clearly implied. "We send £350m to the EU each week and therefore that money can fund the NHS." Complete lies. We never sent £350m a week to the EU. Rees Mogg and his cronies couldn't give a sh*t about the NHS apart from what bits they can make money from for themselves when it comes to privatisation.

 

[nonethewiser]

You got to laugh at BoJo strutting around the country being everyone's mate and promising cash here there and everywhere, can't help thinking about the saying rob peter to pay paul when he makes these announcements, does he and his cronies give a damn about the nhs, not likely.

BoJo debating Brexit

 

[MikeyBikey]

I worry about the world with both the US and UK being headed up by idiots! In the end we will end up with higher priced food, drug shortages and more unemployed. It also worries me how thick the general populace is. On a recent TV program a seriously obese person claimed they did not overeat just ate the wrong type of food - the one that puts on weight!

 

[Bronco Billy]

It's stretching it a bit to suggest that the two were not intended to suggest a direct link in the general public's mind 🙄 'Let's fund the NHS instead' is no different to 'Let's spend it on the NHS instead' in most people's minds. And that's without even mentioning that the £350m figure is totally bogus to start with!

View attachment 12076

A) Where exactly on that poster does it say the NHS would receicve £350 million every week when we left the EU?
B) It could be argued that we give more than that, so yes, it's possible that figure is wrong, but not in the way you think.

 

[MikeyBikey]

A week ago BoJo said there the chances of a hard Brexit was a million to one. Now it is being said that it is the most likely outcome. What exactly has changed in a few days? Answers on a postcard!

 

[Northerner]

A) Where exactly on that poster does it say the NHS would receicve £350 million every week when we left the EU?
B) It could b eargued that we give more than that, so yes, it's possible that figure is wrong, but not in the way you think.

Sophistry 🙄

 

[mikeyB]

BoJo will say anything. He says, for example, that 20,000 more police will be trained for London. On his watch as mayor of that city, police numbers fell by 20,000.

The whole Brexit thing is a sleight of hand, a deceit. We don’t have foodbanks, poverty and poverty level wages because of the EU, it’s because of austerity, which has only affected the less well off. Benefits and wages have not increased in line with inflation. That’s not because of the EU, it’s government policy. But that’s what the pro Brexit vote was - a protest against the government from the dispossessed. And incidentally, the businesses wanting to escape EU regulations on work hours, work benefits such as maternity leave, sick leave payments, and health and safety. All else is so much guff, and the people will suffer as a consequence.

There won’t be any money to spend on all the promises BoJo makes, and he knows it.

 

[MikeyBikey]

I am sick and tired of BoJo's crew using the stock answer "Project Fear" in response to a question that needs a proper answer!

 

[belugalad]

I wonder if the NHS will exist in it's free to use form in 10 to 20 years,Trump said it would be looked at as part of the USA trade deal with the UK but then said he hadn't meant that,I'm sure that's the reality though.

 

[grovesy]

Only time will tell.

 

[mikeyB]

The US senate has said - and remember how many folk of Irish descent are in the senate in both parties- that it will block any trade deal with the UK if there were harm from a hard Brexit to the Good Friday agreement, which formalised an open border between North and South. Boris Johnson or his unelected puppeteer Dominic Cummings may not give a toss about the Northern Irish border, but they will be stranded without a US trade deal, touted as the answer to everything, if a border crossing of any sort appears.

The UK government can't in any case offer the 'NHS' as part of a deal - only in England. The NHS is devolved from English interference in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and if any attempt were made to override that there would be legal hell to pay. Whenever the media in this country refer to the NHS, they only ever mean NHS England. I doubt even Trump would regard the NHS just in England as worth a candle. Furthermore, a repeal of the legislation established after the war which guaranteed a free service would have to get through parliament. Any party sticking that in their manifesto would be committing electoral suicide. And remember, a health service paid for with insurance means poor people will die. They die anyway, in England because they have to make the choice between food, heating, and medication.That's the working poor, not those on benefits. England is the only country in the UK where you have to pay for your medication. To me, it seems pointless having a free service without being able to get the medication to fix your problem.