NHS spending ‘is not measuring up to government pledges’

A new report from the Commons Health Select Committee has indicated that current NHS funding initiatives are not measuring up to the government's pledges.

The report, compiled by cross-party MPs, described the scale of the funding challenge facing the health service as "colossal" and noted that although spending on health is increasing, the NHS is under unprecedented strain and struggling to meet relentlessly rising demand.

Last year's Spending Review announced that the NHS would receive an additional 8.4 billion pounds above inflation by 2020-21, but this was defined in terms of NHS England's budget rather than spending across the whole Department of Health.

As such, it excluded money spent on public health, education and training, meaning that when all these other factors are accounted for, total health spending is likely to increase by only 4.5 billion pounds in real terms by 2021.

Because of this, many parts of the health service are having to do more with less money, with available funds being used to plug deficits and the underlying financial problems facing the NHS often going unnoticed.

Committee chair Dr Sarah Wollaston said: "The cuts to public health undermine the radical upgrade to prevention that is needed to keep people healthy, reduce the gap in life expectancy and years lived in poor health for the most disadvantaged and reduce demand on the health service."