To ask His Majesty's Government what additional levels of service they anticipate will be achieved each year as a result of the additional £22.6 billion allocated to the NHS for day-to-day spending; and what reforms will be needed alongside this additional investment.
Answered on
12 November 2024
The additional funding announced in the Budget will support the National Health Service in England to deliver an additional 40,000 elective appointments a week, and will make progress towards the commitment that patients should expect to wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment. Performance expectations of NHS integrated care boards (ICBs) and trusts for the next financial year will be set out in the 2025/26 NHS planning guidance, at the earliest opportunity.
Investment alone won’t be enough to tackle the problems facing the NHS, and it must go hand in hand with fundamental reform. In the short term, patient care pathways will be reformed to ensure that patients are seen in settings which can deliver better patient experience for lower cost, enhancing patient choice and embedding best practice across the country. Looking to the future, we will publish a 10-Year Health Plan for the NHS in the spring which will set out a bold agenda to deliver on the three big shifts needed to move healthcare from hospitals to the community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention.