The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, will present the 2020 Spending Review to Parliament on Wednesday, but will it be as 'comprehensive' as had been hoped for, with consideration for the needs of Estates and Facilities, such as tackling the backlog maintenance?
The spending review, which had originally been intended to cover three years, has already been revised to cover just one year of day-to-day funding.
In an interview with the BBC yesterday (Sunday), the Chancellor confirmed that providing funds to fight coronavirus would be at the "centre" of the spending review. This includes money for vaccines, testing and the NHS. "It's the right thing to do," he said.
He confirmed an extra £3bn to tackle some of the backlog that has built up over the past few months whilst dealing with coronavirus - this includes treatments and new diagnostic equipment.
The BBC reports that the funding will break down as follows:
• £500m to support mental health services in England
• £1bn towards reducing NHS backlogs, with up to one million extra checks, scans and operations paid for
• £1.5bn to ease existing pressures in the health service.
It would appear that the Chancellor has responded to the letter from NHS Providers, dated November 13, in which the organisation, which represents all of England's NHS hospital, ambulance, community and mental health providers, cautioned that two major, COVID-19 generated pressures must be addressed as quickly as possible. These are the growing backlog for routine planned surgery and the rise in demand for mental health services.
However, it had been hoped that the comprehensive spending review would be used as an opportunity for a long-term plan to ensure the NHS is adequately funded, including a capital plan.
In July, Saffron Cordery, Deputy Chief Executive of NHS Providers, said: "For some time we have been calling on the government to fix the current system of capital investment within the NHS by setting a multi-year settlement which roughly doubles the current budget. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that this must be prioritised, to ensure estates and resources are in keeping with what's needed to efficiently look after people.
"The comprehensive spending review is an opportunity to reset the finances of the NHS, and the government must treat it as such."
Danny Mortimer, Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation also welcomed the extra funding, but said it’s not enough. “We know there is unfinished business in other key areas of health and social care expenditure, such as capital funding, training and education budgets and social care that need to be address in the spending review and we look forward to Wednesday’s announcement.
“While the NHS will do everything it can in these unprecedented times, if £3bn is to be the extent of the additional investment for next year then the government will need to manage expectations and ensure patients understand their care could be disrupted.”
It is still expected that the spending review on Wednesday will allocate budgets for capital investment for the next four years. However, in yesterday's interview, the Chancellor also cautioned that the government cannot continue to borrow money at the rate it has been doing and gave a strong hint of tax rises and spending cuts to come. How much will be left in the pot to tackle the much-needed historic underspend on hospital estates and facilities, which includes £6.5 billion* of backlog maintenance?
Commenting on the funding announced yesterday, NHS Chief Executive, Sir Simon Stevens says: "As well as caring for seriously ill and vulnerable coronavirus patients, our hardworking nurses, doctors, therapists and other NHS staff are looking after many other patients, some of whose care has been disrupted by these two large waves of Covid.
"This extra funding will therefore rightly enable them to tackle longer waits for care by carrying out up to one million extra checks, scans and additional operations.
"And because Covid takes a mental as well as physical toll, it's particularly important that we will be able to continue to expand mental health services too."
* 2019 figure as publication of the 2019/20 ERIC data has been postponed and is now scheduled for January 7, 2021.
