NHS maxing out and mid-term NHS finances impossible without proper plan
20 May 2016
- The sector as a whole ended 2015/16 in a financial deficit of £2.45 billion
- The sector as a whole made £2.9 billion in efficiency savings between April and December 2015
- A total of 65% of NHS providers are now facing deficit
NHS providers continue to face sustained operational and financial challenges during the fourth quarter. Increasing demand on services, coupled with the longest financial squeeze in the history of the NHS have adversely impacted the performance of the whole provider sector and further efficiencies will be required. Providers are doing all that they can to meet their targets and to turn the situation around.
The combination of increasing demand and the longest and deepest financial squeeze in NHS history is maxing out the health service
Financially, the sector ended 2015/16 in a financial deficit of £2.45 billion and sustained pressure from increased demand for care, delayed discharges, and high agency costs have resulted in many providers missing the national waiting time standard for A&E care and other operation performance measures in the last three months of 2015/16.
Chris Hopson, chief executive, said:
“Today’s report reveals how the combination of increasing demand and the longest and deepest financial squeeze in NHS history is maxing out the health service. At the same time as treating the highest ever number of patients, NHS trusts are £2.45 billion in the red, with 65% of providers in deficit. Although this figure is lower than the third quarter trajectory suggested, thanks to lots of hard work by trusts, the underlying deficit is actually nearer £3 billion. This record number of trusts in deficit, with a record overall deficit, is simply not sustainable. We have to rapidly regain control of NHS finances otherwise we risk lengthening waiting times for patients, limiting their access to services, and other reductions in the quality of patient care.
“By 2020 public spending on the NHS is set to drop further to below 7%. This is simply not enough and we need to stop pretending it will be. In the end you get what you pay for. There is now a clear gap between the quality of health service we all want the NHS to provide and the funding available. What we can’t keep doing is passing that gap to NHS trusts – asking them to deliver the impossible and chastising them when they fall short.”Read the full press release.