NHS leaders are calling for the funding settlement unveiled by Theresa May to be drastically renegotiated in the light of the significant long-term costs created by the Covid-19 pandemic plus Tory manifesto pledges for new hospitals and higher staff numbers, .
The 2018 settlement promised an average budget increase of 3.4% per year for the next five years, leading to an extra £20bn for the NHS in England in 2023.
Health figures are already accusing the chancellor Rishi Sunak of breaking a pledge to give the NHS “whatever it needs” this winter after the Treasury refused a request for thousands of acute hospital beds and an increase in crisis community care, designed to keep pressure off hospitals.
Full story in The Observer, 15 August 2020