More details of NHS funding but questions remain

The government has announced more details of what is in this week's Budget for the NHS - including £1.57bn for new surgical hubs, scanners and radiotherapy machines.

The funding is part of the government's overall pledge to increase the number of NHS hospital appointments and procedures in England by 40,000 per week.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the Budget will help to "start fixing the foundation" of the NHS - but warned it "will take time to turn the situation around".

Health experts have welcomed the new funding but cautioned there were many unanswered questions about future policy with the government’s 10-year NHS plan not published until next spring.

Full details of the government's funding plans will come in Wednesday's Budget.

Streeting has repeatedly said "the NHS is broken" since taking on the role in the summer.

The latest waiting time figures for the NHS in England show the backlog for hospital care is 7.64 million. Before the pandemic, it was just over four million.

In August, more than 280,000 people had been waiting for an operation, scan or appointment for more than a year.

And last month, a damning report warned that the NHS in England was in a "critical condition", falling well short of its key targets for cancer, emergency (A&E) and hospital treatment.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the NHS was "the lifeblood of Britain" and that is why she is "putting an end to the neglect and underinvestment it has seen for over a decade".

“We will be known as the government that took the NHS from its worst crisis in its history, got it back on its feet again and made it fit for the bright future ahead of it," she said.

Asked if the Budget would fix the NHS, Reeves said "I don't think in one Budget you can undo 14 years of damage".

But she said this Budget will "provide the resource necessary" to deliver the extra 40,000 appointments a week, reduce the backlog and increase the spending on equipment and buildings.

Streeting said the move would help to "arrest the decline" in the health service - but warned there could still be patients waiting on trolleys and in corridors this winter.

"Our NHS is broken but it’s not beaten and this budget is the moment we start to fix it," he said.

Alongside the extra funding, he said "crack teams of top surgeons" would be sent to hospitals across the country to help them treat more patients "and make the money go further".

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