NHS England estimates that the gap in NHS funding will hit £30 billion by 2021 while, in the short term, new figures show that 80% of acute Trusts reported a deficit – prompting intense debate over the need for increased investment and transformational change.
The funding of the NHS is set to become the subject of intense political debate, in the lead up to the next general election, as Trusts continue to report increasing pressures on their budgets, rising demand on services and dwindling returns on efficiency gains. The leader of the Labour party, Ed Miliband, for example, set out his vision for the NHS by proposing a ‘£2.5 bn Time to Care fund’, paid for by a ‘mansion tax’ (as it has been dubbed), a crackdown on tax avoidance and larger contributions from tobacco firms, towards the cost of treating smoking-related illnesses. Against this backdrop, a number of key reports are calling for urgent investment, to avoid deterioration in care quality, and point towards a financial crisis on the horizon.
King’s Fund: The NHS productivity challenge
Earlier this year, a report by The King’s Fund on the The NHS productivity challenge (May 2014) warned that a significant increase in funding will be required to prevent a financial crisis in the NHS. The report commented that significant opportunities to improve efficiency within the health service still exist (by improving procurement and changing clinical practice, for example), but a financial crisis is now ‘inevitable’ by 2015/16 – or even sooner.1
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