Boris Johnson has announced that £1.8 billion will be injected into the NHS to improve patient care – targeted trusts are set to use the money for building repairs. There are 20 hospital trusts in total set to receive the money, yet Ben Gershlick, Senior Economist at the Health Foundation said that “Given the scale of underinvestment in NHS buildings, equipment and technology in recent years, this level of funding will only scratch the surface and will not close the gap in health care capital spending between England and comparable countries.
“Even after this additional money, there remains a major risk to the quality of patient care posed by deteriorating facilities, out of date infrastructure and a shortage of equipment”
‘There is a £6bn maintenance backlog in trusts alone, of which over £3bn is ‘high or significant risk’, meaning that it is likely to be causing major disruption to services and impacting significantly on patient care quality and safety.”
Full story in Nursing Notes, 7 August 2019