Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Osborne's £2bn "downpayment" will disappear into the black hole of NHS finances before we even get started on paying for the transition to the 5YFV model of health and care delivery
Now that those of us in the NHS have recovered from the shock of George Osborne’s announcement of an extra £2bn funding for the NHS, it is important to reflect on the real impact that this "additional" money will really have. Unfortunately the impact will not be as positive as many would expect, and in itself it is not going to enable the transformation of the NHS laid out in the 5 Year Forward View.
The finances of the NHS are not in a good place. As at the end of September, half way through the NHS’s financial year, NHS providers reported a deficit of £630M. 60% of hospitals are currently reporting a deficit. This is a significant deterioration on last year when only a quarter of hospitals returned a deficit. It also does not take into account the provider ‘deficit funding’, which is funding held centrally to offset deficits in individual provider organisations, which serves to mask a much worse underlying position.
The other important but widely missed point about 2013/14 is that NHS spending grew by 2.6% in real terms, an amount well in excess of recent growth. While funding did not increase, the extra spend came out of the ‘traditional’ in year underspend in the Department of Health, which was massively reduced for the first time since 2006/07.
http://www.theinformationdaily.com/...n-nhs-downpayment-too-little-too-late-too-bad
Now that those of us in the NHS have recovered from the shock of George Osborne’s announcement of an extra £2bn funding for the NHS, it is important to reflect on the real impact that this "additional" money will really have. Unfortunately the impact will not be as positive as many would expect, and in itself it is not going to enable the transformation of the NHS laid out in the 5 Year Forward View.
The finances of the NHS are not in a good place. As at the end of September, half way through the NHS’s financial year, NHS providers reported a deficit of £630M. 60% of hospitals are currently reporting a deficit. This is a significant deterioration on last year when only a quarter of hospitals returned a deficit. It also does not take into account the provider ‘deficit funding’, which is funding held centrally to offset deficits in individual provider organisations, which serves to mask a much worse underlying position.
The other important but widely missed point about 2013/14 is that NHS spending grew by 2.6% in real terms, an amount well in excess of recent growth. While funding did not increase, the extra spend came out of the ‘traditional’ in year underspend in the Department of Health, which was massively reduced for the first time since 2006/07.
http://www.theinformationdaily.com/...n-nhs-downpayment-too-little-too-late-too-bad