18 October 2010
Cuts to local government budgets are likely to cause serious problems for the NHS, health chiefs warned today.
The NHSConfederation said the health service was facing a ‘potent cocktail of financial pressures’ that would be further exasperated by cutbacks in council funded social care provision.
While the NHS budget has been protected, it is expected that councils will need to cut their budgets by at least a quarter after departmental settlements are announced in Wednesday’s Spending Review.
Nigel Edwards, acting chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: ‘With councils facing 25% cuts, we are deeply worried about the potential impact on social care.
‘It seems inevitable that we will see a significant withdrawal of support from some of the most vulnerable people in our society – before long we could see the majority of councils only supplying services to those with the most critical of needs.
‘If needs are not met by social care, people will turn to the NHS.’
The government established an independent commission to look into long-term social care funding in July, which will report back within a year and pave the way for changes in the next Parliament.
But Edwards said an immediate decision was needed. ‘There is a strong case for an interim solution. Local and central government need to urgently work together to consider how we can all mitigate the impact of this spending squeeze on some of the most vulnerable people in society.’
The NHS will not experience the financial increases it has had in recent years, despite the ring-fencing of the health service’s budget until 2014/15.
Funding would not be ‘adequate’ to deal with growing demand, one of the biggest reorganisations of the NHS in its history and the need to find £20bn of efficiency savings, Edwards said.
He warned there would be ‘no pain-free choices’ if the health service was to ‘make all this happen’.
The NHS Confederation represents over 95% of NHS organisations.
