Govt launches £700m Winter funding to tackle record NHS backlog
The government has launched a £700 million targeted investment fund for 785 schemes across 187 hospital trusts to increase capacity and tackle waiting lists.
The record 5.8 million backlog for NHS care in England could reach between 7 million and 12 million by early 2025, the National Audit Office warned earlier this week.
The funding, to be split across all regions in England, will help reduce waiting times for patients by expanding the number of operating theatres and beds, including new day surgery units to prevent people staying overnight and investment in technology to improve their experiences of care and help them manage their conditions.
Alongside this, the government is today publishing a document setting out the key challenges facing NHS and social care services this winter, including COVID-19 and the potential threat of variants, preparations being undertaken to keep people safe and healthy, as well as the actions the public can take.
It comes after the COVID-19 booster programme was extended to all adults in England – with everyone aged over 18 to be offered a booster by the end of January.
Today’s investment is part of the £5.4 billion already announced to support the NHS response to the pandemic in the second half of the year. In total, the government is investing over £34 billion of additional funding in health and social care services this year.
The pandemic put unprecedented pressure on the NHS. To fix this, the NHS needs to be able to offer more appointments, operations and treatments. New, innovative practices must be adopted so patients continue to receive the best possible care.
The allocations for the £700 million announced today include £330 million for upgrading NHS facilities, £250 million for new technology and £120 million for any supporting revenue costs.
In total, 785 schemes have been approved.
To prepare for this winter, the NHS and national and local government has undertaken a range of actions, which include working to recruit 18,000 more staff, including nurses, healthcare support workers, medical support workers, alongside making use of temporary staffing and staff banks
To prepare for this winter, the NHS and national and local government has undertaken a range of actions, which include:
From April 2022, the new Health and Social Care Levy, UK-wide healthcare funding will rise by a record £36 billion over the next 3 years. The new funding includes a commitment to ring-fence an additional £8 billion to fund waiting list recovery – the biggest catch-up programme in NHS history.
The levy funding is on top of the government’s previous commitment to increasing NHS funding from £33.9 billion to a total of £148.5 billion by 2023 to 2024, which has been enshrined in law.
