Yesterday the Government announced an additional £5.4 billion for our NHS to support the COVID-19 response and to tackle the backlogs, as we continue to make sure our health service has what it needs to build back better.
The NHS has been phenomenal throughout the pandemic and we are immensely grateful for this, but treating Covid patients has created huge backlogs. That is why the Government is providing an additional £5.4 billion to the NHS over the next 6 months, including an extra £1 billion to help tackle the COVID-19 backlog, bringing our total investment to health services for COVID-19 so far this year to over £34 billion, with £2 billion to tackle the elective backlog.
The funding will immediately go towards supporting the NHS to manage the immediate pressures of the pandemic. This includes an extra £1 billion to help tackle the COVID-19 backlog, £2.8 billion to cover related costs such as enhanced infection control measures to keep staff and patients safe from the virus and £478 million to continue the hospital discharge programme, freeing up beds.
£478 million of this new funding has been dedicated to continue the hospital discharge programme so staff can ensure patients leave hospital as quickly and as safely as possible, with the right community or at-home support. This will free up thousands of extra beds and staff time to help the NHS recover services. The government has also invested £500 million in capital funding for extra theatre capacity and productivity-boosting technology, to increase the number of surgeries able to take place.
On top of this funding, the NHS recently launched a £160 million initiative to tackle waiting lists. This is looking to accelerate the recovery of routine treatments and operations by trialling new ways of working, including a high-volume cataract service, one stop testing facilities where people can get tests done quickly and efficiently, to speed up the time to treatment, greater access to specialist advice for GPs and pop-up clinics so patients can be seen and discharged closer to home.
Yesterday’s announcement is in addition to the £3 billion announced at Spending Review 2020 to support the NHS. It is also additional to the historic long-term settlement for the NHS, which is enshrined in law and will see NHS funding increase by £33.9 billion by 2023 to 2024 as part of the NHS Long Term Plan.
The Government will continue to support the NHS respond to COVID-19. The government made available £63 billion in 2020 to 2021 and over £34 billion so far this year to support health services, and increased the NHS core non-COVID budget from £130 billion to £136 billion.
This will make sure our NHS has what it needs to tackle the backlogs and continue to deliver routine operations and treatments as we build back better from the worst pandemic in a century.
For more information on the Government’s latest announcement of an additional £5.4 billion for NHS COVID-19 response over next 6 months, including comments from the Prime Minister and the Health and Social Care Secretary, please visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/additional-54-billion-for-nhs-covid-19-response-over-next-six-months
