Full story The Guardian, 8 November 2017
The NHS will need up to £24bn more by 2022 than Theresa May plans to give it or patient care will worsen and treatment waiting times grow even longer, experts have said.
Rising demand for care means the NHS budget in England will have to jump to £152.6bn by the end of this parliament, which could be as much as £24.2bn more than ministers have pledged.
At least £4bn of that will have to come next year alone just to keep the NHS functioning well, three leading health thinktanks have said.
The estimates come a day after the boss of the service’s financial regulator warned that the NHS could “pop” unless it receives an emergency cash injection in the budget later this month.
Jim Mackey, the chief executive of NHS Improvement, said the NHS would have to scale back the range of services it provides in ways that would damage patient care if chancellor Philip Hammond does not announce an increase on the sums already planned on 22 November.