Ministers and NHS England chief at loggerheads over targets

[Northerner]

The head of the NHS and the government are at loggerheads over how much the health service can be improved for the £20.5bn extra Theresa May has pledged to give it, the Guardian can reveal.

Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, has been having major disagreements behind the scenes in recent weeks with Downing Street, the Treasury and Department of Health and Social Care about how much the forthcoming NHS long-term plan can promise to boost care.

“Tension” and “difficulties” have emerged during detailed horsetrading between the two sides amid sharp differences of opinion over the extent of the document’s ambitions, well-placed NHS and Whitehall sources have told the Guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/society...nhs-england-chief-at-loggerheads-over-targets

 

[grovesy]

I am not surprised .

 

[mikeyB]

Yes - Simon Stevens is telling the government that their twenty billion is only enough to keep things as they are. What the government want is some kind of headline that shows that it’s changing for the better with this money, it won’t, and they don’t like it.

As grovesy says, I’m not in the least surprised.

 

[grovesy]

Yeah then the next thing they wont maintain the funds.

 

[Northerner]

Yeah then the next thing they wont maintain the funds.

Thankfully, we'll have the Brexit bonus to rely on 😉 😱 🙄

 

[mikeyB]

Even were Brexit not to happen, the £20m would not be enough. If Brexit happens the money will disappear. This government has cut back money for the NHS (and social security) more than any government since 1949 in real terms. You can’t keep cutting money and expecting better service. It’s also the first government in 200 years to govern over a reduction in average life expectancy. Another 5 years of this government and we should be down to Russian levels.