04 April 2003
The billions of pounds of taxpayers' money being pumped into the NHS is improving the service, Health Secretary Alan Milburn insisted this week.
In a pre-emptive strike aimed at critics of the 1% increase in National Insurance contributions – which the government has explicitly linked with extra funding for the NHS – Milburn said the service had now 'turned the corner' with the help of an additional £5.2bn in 2002/03.
The health secretary used a report published by his department to link the cash to improvements in the NHS. His message was clear – pay more to get a better service.
The report, Delivering the NHS Plan: expenditure report, said the lion's share of the extra spending during 2002/03 went on staff costs – £1.3bn was spent on employing extra people while £1.6bn was used to increase pay. The total pay bill for the NHS in 2002/03 is expected to be around £31bn.
Milburn said this investment, plus £850m spent on increased drug prescriptions, would improve the access to and the quality of services while ensuring pay was sufficient to recruit and retain staff.
He added that the NHS had invested in the future, spending £1bn of the extra cash on new training places, buildings and research.
Spending will increase by a further £5.1bn in 2003/04. Around £2bn of this will go on employing new staff and additional prescribing, £1bn on buildings and training, and around £1.6bn for pay reform.
The extra investment should enable the health service to increase activity by 5%, he added, while the three-month maximum waiting time for heart operations will be brought forward from 2008 to March 2005.
'The report gives the lie to those who say that resources in the NHS never deliver results,' he said. 'The NHS is on the mend. It is now turning the corner, though it is true there is a long way to go.'
However, Conservative shadow health secretary Dr Liam Fox dismissed the report.
'Nobody should be taken in by Alan Milburn's claims. Despite the huge increase in funding, the NHS is in crisis,' he said.
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