In the first full financial year since this Coalition Government took office (2011/12), the NHS cut £5.8 billion from its spending. Some of these “efficiency savings” were made by finding cheaper prices for things the NHS had to buy, but much of the savings also came from reducing the wages bill. In other words, NHS staff were themselves bailing out the service.
Staff are paying the NHS savings at both ends of the scale. The BMA has calculated that both consultants and doctors in training have seen their pay fall by 13% over the years 2008 to 2013. GPs have seen their income fall by 11% (from 2008 to 2012).
The King’s Fund is an independent charity which conducts research in order to inform policy and practice in the NHS. Its 2014 report calls for a significant increase in funding for the NHS.
Dr Mark Porter, Chair of BMA Council, explained what the King’s Fund had found: “This report lays bare the severity of the financial crisis facing the NHS and the fact that the health service is, put bluntly, running out of money. This makes the billions wasted on the government’s unnecessary reorganisation even more galling.
“With the UK falling behind other countries on health spending, and many services at or nearing breaking point, we need to act now to put the NHS on a sustainable footing for the future.
“While the government claims the NHS budget is being protected, in reality it’s facing a funding shortfall of £30bn, billions of which have been made up from unsustainable cuts to services and eroding the pay of front-line staff.
“Productivity in the NHS is going up and staff are working harder than ever before, in increasingly high pressured and challenging work environments, to meet rising demand. Doctors and other staff want to be at the fore of improving how the NHS delivers the best possible patient care, but we cannot get away from the fact that many services are critically under-funded.
“Politicians need to put their money where their mouth is to address the massive funding gap in our health service, otherwise the future of the NHS as we know it will be at risk.”