Sajid Javid confirms £5.4bn extra NHS England funding for winter
Sajid Javid has today announced NHS England will receive an extra £5.4bn in funding over winter in a bid to clear the Covid-related hospital backlog.
The health secretary announced that £1bn will go directly on easing the waiting list, £2.8bn will be used to cover related costs such as enhanced infection control measures and £478 million will be used to “continue the hospital discharge programme, freeing up beds”.
Javid warned in June after being appointed health secretary that the NHS waiting list had ballooned to 7m, while an NHS boss last week said the backlog could reach 13m in just a few years’ time.
A little under £30bn of funding was made available for NHS England for 2021-22 prior to this announcement.
“Today’s additional £5.4bn funding over the next six months is critical to ensuring the health service has what it needs to manage the ongoing pandemic and helping to tackle waiting lists,” Javid said.
“We know waiting lists will get worse before they get better as people come forward for help, and I want to reassure you the NHS is open, and we are doing what we can to support the NHS to deliver routine operations and treatment to patients across the country.”
The announcement will likely mean that Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak and Javid have come to an agreement on a rise in National Insurance.
Multiple outlets over the weekend said that the NHS would get a £35bn funding boost over the next three years by increasing National Insurance Contributions by 1 to 1.25 per cent.
The extra taxation, a projected £10bn a year, would then be used after this point to fix the country’s social care crisis by capping individual care costs at £80,000.
Boris Johnson said: “We will continue to make sure our NHS has what it needs to bust the Covid backlogs and help the health service build back better from the worst pandemic in a century.”
A growing number of cabinet ministers have anonymously hit out at the tax rise, while Labour has also said it does not back increasing National Insurance.