1/7 NHS 1H 2021/22 budget now settled. Hurrah. At last! Trust leaders will be relieved that NHS budget for first half of next year has now been finalised. But it is extraordinary that this has been left to just 13 days before the beginning of the new financial year.
2/7 “As we've been publicly highlighting for weeks, trusts have been incredibly frustrated by the delays. This has disrupted planning for another tough year as trusts seek to deal with care backlogs alongside the ongoing challenge from COVID-19.
3/7 "The last thing trust leaders needed was their attention being unnecessarily diverted from the urgent tasks in hand. When we discussed this risk with Government months ago, they promised NHS budgets would be finalised well in advance of the start of the financial year.
4/7 “So while it's good the NHS’ budget has been finally been set, it's disappointing it took so long. This mustn’t happen again. The £6.6 bn. for extra covid costs in the first half of 2021/22 is lower than the £8 bn. the NHS’s COVID cost run rate last year would imply...
5/7 ...We will want to see the details to confirm whether all NHS additional COVID-19 costs are being fully covered. We will also be seeking reassurances, as we get towards the second half of 2021/22, that the NHS gets the money that it needs to properly recover services.
6/7 “We also need to be clear that covering the NHS’s extra covid costs and funding the multi-year cost of recovering care backlogs are completely different. The Government announced an extra £3 billion non recurrent 2021/22 funding in last November’s spending review...
7/7 ...£1bn of which was for recovering elective care and £500m of which was for extra mental health capacity.
These can only be seen as the first instalments to cover these costs. And, crucially, it must be remembered that they are one off funding amounts, just for this year”.
These can only be seen as the first instalments to cover these costs. And, crucially, it must be remembered that they are one off funding amounts, just for this year”.
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