FILE PHOTO: Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves speaks on stage at the Britain's Labour Party's annual conference in Liverpool, Britain, September 23, 2024. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo
LONDON: UK chancellor of the exchequer Rachel Reeves will set aside billions of pounds for the National Health Service (NHS) in her budget next week as the institution kicks off an extensive programme of reform.
Reeves is planning to announce real-term increases to the NHS’s day-to-day budget in this tax year and the next, anonymous government sources told the Times newspaper, though detailed allocations have yet to be agreed.
The Treasury did not respond to a request for comment last Sunday.
The funding negotiations come as the Health secretary Wes Streeting will call on the public, clinicians and experts to submit ideas for the future of the NHS, in what he vowed would be the “biggest national conversation” about the institution since it was founded in 1948.
Britain’s aging population and the Covid-19 pandemic have placed the NHS under intense strain, leading to a soaring backlog and worsening health outcomes for many patients.
While Reeves is under pressure to give the NHS enough financial support to fulfill Labour’s manifesto pledge of creating 40,000 extra appointments and operations a week.
She is also operating within tight fiscal constraints as she attempts to raise as much as £40bil (US$52bil) to balance Britain’s books.
In a statement announcing his plans for the health service reform, Streeting - who confirmed he had reached an agreement with the chancellor on NHS funding in the forthcoming budget - said “investment alone” would not be enough to tackle the problems facing the NHS.
“In order to save the things we love about the NHS, we need to change it,” he said.
“Our 10 year health plan will transform the NHS to make it fit for the future, and it will have patients’ and employees’ fingerprints all over it.”
Speaking to GB News, he added that Reeves’ budget will focus on “investment in things like capital and tech so that we can make the system more efficient.”
Streeting has already outlined plans to create new neighbourhood health centres to reduce the burden on hospitals, digitalise patient records, update information technology systems across the NHS and roll out new wearable devices such as smartwatches so patients can monitor their own health.
Reeves has been weighing a series of tax hikes in recent months.
She is gearing up to deliver high-risk budget that can convince investors and voters, as well as her fellow Labour Party cabinet ministers, that the United Kingdom has stabilised following a tumultuous period in which the country cycled through four Tory prime ministers in five years.
After Labour came to power in July’s general election by inflicting a dramatic defeat on the Conservatives, the chancellor claimed her Tory predecessors had left a £20bil black hole in the public purse.
Among other measures, she is considering raising taxes levied on entrepreneurs when they sell their businesses, reforming inheritance tax and extending a freeze on income tax thresholds, according to people familiar with her plans. — Bloomberg
