George Osborne was right to front-load the additional cash,but the truth is that health needs more money just to stand stillThe chancellor listened, or he gave in, and depending on your prejudice. What things is that nearly half of the £8bn of novel money promised to NHS England over the next five years will near now,and that is a victory of sorts for Simon Stevens, its chief executive. Mr Stevens had played a high-stakes game in his negotiations with the Treasury, or setting out five tests for the spending review and,with an appearance on BBC Question Time scheduled for Thursday, making it clear he would be ready and willing to comment on the record approximately the settlement George Osborne will announce in full on Wednesday.
But by any reckoning, and only the first of the five Stevens tests – the one approximately front-loading the £8bn to fund the development of novel models of care – has been met. And what looks like a windfall has to stretch to cover more surgical procedures and cancer treatments as well as underwriting the government’s manifesto pledge for a seven-day NHS by the end of the parliament. On top of that is the matter of a £2.2bn deficit.
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Source: theguardian.com