Post-recession cuts in NHS spending are ‘inconceivable’_2

12 Mar 09
Health Secretary Alan Johnson has told MPs it is ‘inconceivable’ that the NHS will face real-terms spending cuts from 2011, when the government aims to restore the public finances after the recession

13 March 2009

By Tash Shifrin

Health Secretary Alan Johnson has told MPs it is ‘inconceivable’ that the NHS will face real-terms spending cuts from 2011, when the government aims to restore the public finances after the recession.

The Commons health select committee questioned Johnson about the impact of future restraint on public spending. It enquired how the £37bn cut in public spending growth from 2011/12, predicted by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, would hit the health service.

Johnson said there was ‘no departmental breakdown’ of how the reduction in planned spending growth to 1.1% a year set out in the Pre-Budget Report would be implemented.

But it would be ‘completely irresponsible’ for NHS managers to anticipate a continuation of  ‘the spending growth we’ve been used to’, he told MPs at the March 11 hearing.

Health spending had risen from £426 per head of population in 1997 to £1,612 for next year, Johnson argued. ‘All that is locked in,’ he said.

‘We start from the best platform that health has ever had in its 61-year history. We’ll see what the future holds… I’ll be arguing for a real-terms growth of some sort.’

Health was a government priority, Johnson said, adding: ‘It’s inconceivable to me that people will be having to cope with real-terms cuts.’

The health secretary also rejected recent claims by Audit Commission chief executive Steve Bundred that the public finances could be heading for ‘Armageddon’. The audit chief also claimed that public service managers who were not planning for ‘substantially less money’ in two years’ time were ‘living in cloud-cuckoo land’.

Johnson told the committee: ‘I don’t know what land he’s living in. What the Treasury set out was 1.1% growth across the public sector. We’re not talking about people being in an Armageddon situation.’

The government was aiming to bring health spending to the European average as a proportion of gross domestic product – about 9% – but this proportion would not continue to rise.

‘I don’t think that’s a value-for-money health service,’ Johnson said.

PFmar2009

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