Boston and Skegness MP Matt Warman has welcomed the Government’s new NHS funding settlement, noting that it will help to end workforce inequalities so that hospitals such as Pilgrim will no longer face the challenges seen currently in its paediatric unit.
As the NHS approaches its 70th birthday, the Government announced that it will invest an extra £20 billion a year in real terms in the NHS by 2023-24, which will help secure it for generations to come. By 2023/34 the NHS England budget will be £394 million a week higher in real terms compared to now.
In Parliament on Monday, Matt said,
“I welcome this bold, ambitious and sufficient funding settlement. Does the Secretary of State agree that over this period we will be able to eliminate not just the funding inequalities but the workforce inequalities so that units such as paediatrics at Pilgrim Hospital no longer face the kind of challenges we have seen historically?”
In response, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt confirmed that the NHS workforce is a key priority for the Government, and it will shortly publish a 10-year NHS workforce plan. This plan will go together with NHS England Chief Executive Simon Stevens’s NHS plan, which are both designed to avoid staff shortages in particular clinical specialities. Such shortages have been seen at Boston’s Pilgrim Hospital, which has faced long-term recruitment challenges that have most recently affected children’s service.
Jeremy Hunt said,
“This year we will publish a final 10-year NHS workforce plan, at the same time as the NHS plan that Simon Stevens is putting together. Together they are designed precisely to avoid shortages in particular and very important specialties.”
Commenting, Matt said,
“I am delighted that the Government has announced a settlement for the NHS which will ensure that the services we all need are secure for the future. Not only will this provide certainty for the health service financially, but it will help to address workforce challenges which Trusts across the country have faced, currently seen acutely in Pilgrim Hospital’s paediatric unit. The new funding and the upcoming 10-year workforce plan will give the NHS the long-term support it needs to continue providing the groundbreaking healthcare we have seen it give for its first 70 years – crucially, it must also address the historic funding formulas that have disadvantaged Lincolnshire, and I’m pleased to learn that that is the Secretary of State’s intention.”
Matt’s question on 18th June can be read in full here.
More information on the NHS funding settlement can be found here.