Theresa May’s NHS pledge decried as sticking plaster

Full Story in The Guardian, 18 June 2018

Theresa May’s plans to increase NHS funding by 3.4% is a “sticking plaster” that is insufficient to drive real improvement in the health service, one of the UK’s most influential thinktanks said on Sunday.

Reacting to the news of May’s proposed £20bn rise in funding over a decade, several organisations suggested it was less than needed to drive improvements, and would rather only stem the NHS’s decline.

The Health Foundation said the increase fell short of the 4% minimum required to roll back years of damage inflicted by eight years of austerity. “A giant sticking plaster is still just a sticking plaster,” it said.