In his Autumn Statement yesterday, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt outlined his tax and public spending plans along with ambitions to increase productivity growth across the public sector by at least 0.5% per year. He didn’t, however, commit any further support towards fixing the problems that stand in the way of those ambitions, such as workforce shortages, ongoing strikes, problems in social care and the condition of much of the NHS estate.
Responding to the statement, Sir Julian Hartley, Chief Executive of NHS Providers, says: "An NHS fit for the future needs the right numbers of staff, better supported social care, more beds and more investment in buildings and equipment to help to boost productivity and give patients top-class care.
"As Britain's biggest employer the NHS needs a healthy workforce. Improving the health of the population, including joined-up action to tackle the root causes of longstanding health inequalities, must be a mission for the whole of government to help communities thrive and ease pressure on NHS services.
"Long waiting times for patients stem from years of severe workforce shortages – with more than 125,000 NHS vacancies today across England – and underinvestment in health services. And we are still waiting to learn how all of the ambitions in the Long Term Workforce Plan for the NHS, published in June, will be funded.
"If ministers want to see waiting times come down – a stated government priority – and productivity go up then hospital, mental health, community and ambulance services need significant capital injections to repair buildings and facilities and for digital transformation.
"Trusts recognise the need to manage public funds effectively and strive to make the most of every penny invested in the NHS to benefit patients, doing all they can to provide more first-class care and meet rising demand. Increasing productivity can’t be a case of just asking already overstretched staff to do more with existing resources.
"Trust leaders tell us that they are seeing patients with multiple, often more complex, conditions. This can mean longer stays in hospital and take longer to reach diagnosis and ensure the right treatment.
"We need to see too the government and doctors' unions resolve disputes behind months of costly strikes which have got in the way of work to cut waiting lists further."
