Wes Streeting spoke at the NHS Providers conference at the ACC Liverpool
Wes Streeting has hinted at extra cash for GPs and hospices, such as Zoe’s Place, who face being hit by the Budget’s rise in national insurance. The Health Secretary said there would be no formal exemption for the rise coming in April, but he was “looking very carefully” at funding allocations from Westminster.
He promised an announcement on hospices before Christmas while for GPs, who have warned they could be forced to cut services or close surgeries, Mr Streeting said he “recognised the pressures” they were facing. While public sector organisations like the NHS will be protected from the impact of the tax hike on employers, hospices and GP surgeries face uncertainty.
The British Medical Association has warned that GP practices could be forced to cut staff and services, impacting on patient care. Some surgeries may have to close as a result of the increased costs imposed in the Budget.
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Mr Streeting told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “There are some providers of NHS services like GPs and others who are not formally part of the NHS. They’re contracted, they’re effectively private businesses providing a public service, so they’re not automatically exempt from employer national insurance contributions.”
The Health Secretary added: “We’re not doing a formal exemption but I recognise the pressures, and I want to deal with them.” On hospices, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today they also will not be exempt but “one of the reasons that I haven’t yet announced the allocation for hospices is I’m looking very carefully at what we can do through the hospice grant to recognise that pressure”.
He added: “We’ll make an announcement on the hospice grant before Christmas because I recognise that people need to be able to make decisions about the next financial year, but the hospice grant will continue.” But he defended the decision to increase employers’ national insurance contributions, saying that allowed the Government to “be able to invest in our NHS as well as our other public services”.
After his appearance on the morning broadcast round, Mr Streeting told leaders at the NHS Providers conference at the ACC Liverpool today there was a need to “recover and renew” the health service. He said: “The Prime Minister pledged the biggest reimagining of the NHS and it falls upon all our shoulders to deliver this – the jewel in the crown of this Government’s decade of national renewal.”
Mr Streeting told NHS leaders “we are in this together”, adding: “the NHS is already living on borrowed time and if a Labour Government can’t improve the NHS, then it simply won’t survive.” It comes after the Health Secretary said failing hospitals will be named and shamed in league tables and NHS managers sacked if they cannot improve patient care and take control of finances.
NHS England will carry out a “no holds barred” review of NHS performance across England with the results made public in league tables which are regularly updated. NHS trusts can expect to be ranked on a range of indicators such as finances, delivery of services, patient access to care and the competency of leadership.
Health leaders hit back at the move, saying it could demoralise staff, and accused ministers of “falling for the appealing notion of a magic productivity tree which will make the NHS more efficient just by shaking the magic tree harder”.
