The majority of the 44 STP footprints are expecting to require new capital funding in order to finance the projects under their health and care plans, many of which include vital buildings and community facilities – with current estimations predicting that almost £10bn will be needed in total.
According to a Freedom of Information investigation conducted by the BMA, 36 STP footprints have projected capital demands so far, with more than half telling NHS England that they will need more than £100m of upfront funding to make the changes outlined in their plans.
A handful of other areas, such as Greater Manchester, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and West Yorkshire, have quoted needs of more than £500m. Altogether, the 36 footprints are expecting to need around £9.5bn of fresh funding to make STPs work.
But the BMA has claimed that NHS leaders are unlikely to have anything close to the money currently required, given that existing budgets are already under significant strain to deliver ‘business as usual’ demands. This had already been laid bare in NHS England board papers from last year, but the union has now put a price tag to the problem.
Lincolnshire’s STP, for example, said that “access to capital funding is critical to the delivery of the clinical service redesign”, while Kent and Medway STP suggested a lack of new capital would be a “significant barrier to change”.
Full story in the NHE, 14 February 2017