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Osborne announces £3.8 billion NHS funding in 2016/17

Osborne announces £3.8 billion NHS funding in 2016/17
24 November 2015



The NHS will receive £3.8 billion by the end of 2016, the chancellor George Osborne has announced, ahead of his spending review tomorrow.

This forms part of the £8 billion that was promised by Osborne in April as part of the Conservative party manifesto.

The NHS will be boosted with £3.8bn in 2016/17, £1.5bn in 2017/18, then smaller increases of £1.5 billion in 2017/18, and £0.5 billion in 2018/19 and £0.9 billion in 2019/20.

The NHS will receive £3.8 billion by the end of 2016, the chancellor George Osborne has announced, ahead of his spending review tomorrow.

This forms part of the £8 billion that was promised by Osborne in April as part of the Conservative party manifesto.

The NHS will be boosted with £3.8bn in 2016/17, £1.5bn in 2017/18, then smaller increases of £1.5 billion in 2017/18, and £0.5 billion in 2018/19 and £0.9 billion in 2019/20.

The additional funding will be used to offer 800,000 more operations and treatments on the NHS, 2 million more diagnostic tests, 5.5 million more outpatient appointments and up to £2 billion more spent on new drugs, the Treasury announced today.

It’s statement read: “As the NHS faces growing demands from an ageing population, it will also allow the development of better out of hospital services that will see more people treated closer to home, give patients greater control over their own care, and help prevent people getting seriously ill in the first place.

The additional investment will deliver a truly 7-day health service, with the services people need being offered in hospitals at the weekend and people able to access a GP at evenings and weekends.”

It stated that by 2020, everyone will be able to access GP services in the evenings and at weekends, and that by 2018, there will be 7-day coverage in all key hospital services for half the population, rising to 100% by 2020.

In response, Rob Webster, chief executive of NHS Confederation, said that while this “appears a positive step” it is “clear that significant risks remain” in terms of the social care and public health budget.

“Local government budgets have been cut dramatically over the last five years and there is no doubting the knock-on impact this has on the NHS… 

“On Wednesday, we will have a better sense of the full settlement for health and care, which will allow us to consider the settlement as a whole. We’ll also be looking in the coming weeks to bring system leaders together to analyse proposals in full and provide a considered view on what it means for health and care," he added.

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