NHS to receive ‘largest ever’ cash boost in spending review

NHS funding to is to rise by 3% a year until 2028/29, the chancellor has announced today in her spending review.

The government is providing a £29bn increase (£53bn cash increase) in annual NHS day-to-day spending from 2023/24 to 2028/29.

This will take spending to £226bn by 2028/29, equivalent to a 3% average annual real terms growth rate over the spending review period.

While pharmacy leaders have somewhat welcomed the cash injection into the health service, many have argued the need for specific funding for the sector – especially given it has ‘so much to offer to improve care’ for patients.

Announcing the funding today, Ms Reeves reiterated the government’s commitment to ‘shifting care back to the community’.

She pledged to increase the NHS technology budget ‘by almost 50%’ and to invest £10bn to ‘bring our analogue health system into the digital age, including through the NHS App so patients can manage their prescriptions, get their test results, and book appointments all in one place’. It was announced at the end of May that a new feature in the NHS App that allows patients to track their prescriptions had been rolled out to 1,500 community pharmacies.

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Today, Ms Reeves also committed to ‘providing more funding to support the training of thousands more GPs to deliver millions more appointments’ and to roll out mental health support teams ‘in all schools in England’.

‘These investments will enable the delivery of our upcoming 10-year plan for health and put the NHS firmly back on the path to renewal,’ said Ms Reeves.

She added: ‘To make sure the NHS is there whenever we need it, I am proud to announce today that this Labour Government is making a record cash investment in our National Health Service – increasing real-terms, day to day spending by 3% per year for every single year of this spending review. An extra £29bn per year for the day to day running of our health service.’

The spending review also committed a £2.3bn increase (£4bn cash increase) in Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) annual capital budgets from 2023-24 to 2029-30, to invest in the NHS, including in new technology, hospitals and primary care.

This will deliver the ‘largest ever’ health capital budget, representing a more than 20% real terms increase by the end of the spending review period, according to the spending review document published this afternoon.

Chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), Henry Gregg, said that while real terms spending increases for the NHS were good news, the challenge of keeping pharmacies supporting millions of patients every day while they are still facing acute financial pressures should not be underestimated.

Mr Gregg reiterated how pharmacies can ‘free capacity across the NHS to deliver the government’s vision and transform services for patients’.

‘They are medicines experts and ensure patients get the best outcomes, prevent hospital admissions, and helping get the best value from the ever-growing NHS drugs bill,’ he added.

Janet Morrison, Community Pharmacy England chief executive, said that years of underfunding and real-terms cuts had left community pharmacies struggling to cope.

‘We need the eventual outcomes of this spending review to put this right,’ she commented.

‘Today’s spending review announcement continues the government’s commitment to delivering care closer to home.

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‘We support this: community pharmacy has so much to offer to improve care for patients and the public, in their local communities, contributing to all of the government’s three healthcare shifts.

‘Pharmacies have an astonishingly strong record on efficiency – the best in the NHS – and they have even more to offer if they can be properly supported, funded and integrated into primary care.’

Professor Claire Anderson, Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) president, said that while the latest community pharmacy funding settlement was a vote of confidence in the sector, ‘we must acknowledge that ongoing economic pressures on pharmacies continue to bite’.

‘The sector still needs fair and sustainable resourcing in the longer term to bridge the funding gap so it can deliver the government’s ambitions,’ she added.

She suggested that ‘all eyes will now be turning’ to the highly anticipated 10-Year Health Plan, adding that there were ‘key questions for how pharmacists and all health professions will be enabled to help deliver the NHS of the future’.

Professor Anderson added: ‘We have seen some welcome progress with Pharmacy First and, with the right support and investment, an enhanced community pharmacist

prescribing service will help deliver the government’s ambition to deliver more care in the community.’

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Meanwhile, CCA chief executive Malcolm Harrison welcomed the funding increase: ‘Now, it is imperative that investment follows for community pharmacy, especially if the government is serious about delivering its three big shifts in healthcare: hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention.

‘Unfortunately, the current level of NHS funding for pharmacies is insufficient to sustain the network, resulting in the continued loss of local pharmacies across the country.’

He said that more funding must be made available to pharmacies so they can continue to meet the growing demands of medicines supply and provide accessible care to patients wherever and whenever they need it.