NHS in 2020

NHS England CEO Simon Stevens recently produced his five year ‘Forward View’. It says that the NHS needs an extra £8 billion every year above current planned budgets by 2020.

I’m chuffed that Liberal Democrats have signed up to making this happen  if in government. The NHS is a vital national institution and remarkably effective. It isn’t perfect but considering the wild swings in its structure and how it is run with every new government it has proven remarkably resilient. What an amazing dedicated workforce.

But the budget challenges of an ageing population, huge population growth and costs of new treatments and drugs mean the NHS needs sufficient stability to become more efficient and the promise of sufficient money to make long terms plans.

So the Liberal Democrat Care Minister Norman Lamb has written to his Tory and Labour counterparts asking them to also confirm they will commit to providing the £8 billion extra funding needed.

With cross party support the NHS could flourish. Without cross party support for this extra £8 billion of funding NHS managers won’t have the certainty they need to ensure the system does more than just barely survive.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *