NHS Confederation responds to the latest report by the BMJ Commission on the Future of the NHS

Responding to the latest report by the BMJ Commission on the Future of the NHS Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said:

“With a revenue settlement announced by the Chancellor earlier this month which is at best flat in real terms against a backdrop of significant deficits and universal pressures across the NHS we know that the next financial year is going to, once again, stretch health service reserves to the limit.

“NHS leaders would agree, as this latest BMJ Commission research warns, that while pledges made in the latest Budget are a start, they do not go far enough in plugging the gap in health service funding.

“We have been calling for further investment in capital for some time, but the scalable productivity gains the government is hoping for can only come to fruition if it deals, head on, with the elephant in the room – the NHS’s dilapidated estates and crumbling infrastructure. 

“While NHS leaders will continue to do all they can, they are very worried about the continued underinvestment in capital which is why we have called for a £6.4bn annual capital funding increase for the NHS.

“Ultimately, the fear is that the government has backed the NHS into a corner with both its funding and performance expectations. So, whilst going all out to achieve against those, the risk is that the health service will simply not be able to deliver with the resources it has been given.”