Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
5th Report - NHS financial sustainability
Public Accounts Committee
HC 350
Published 29 January 2025
Conclusions (5)
10
Conclusion
Acknowledged
NHSE received significant extra funding from the government during the course of 2023–24. This included £2.8 billion to support new pay deals for staff, and £1.7 billion to mitigate the impact of industrial action. Despite this extra money, NHS systems still finished the year with an aggregated £1.4 billion deficit, …
Government Response Summary
NHS England and DHSC continue to work together to enable planning guidance to be published well in advance of the start of the financial year, and ideally before Christmas.
12
Conclusion
Acknowledged
Demand for capital in the NHS continues to outstrip supply and the UK lags behind other OECD countries in terms of capital investment in its health system. DHSC has maintained its recent track record of not fully investing the capital funds HMT allocates it and instead reallocating large amounts for …
Government Response Summary
The government stated that the fiscal rules set out by the Chancellor at the Autumn Budget 2024 mean that no further capital-to-revenue transfers will be used, and the department welcomes this decision. In 2025-26, a budget of £13.6 billion for health capital investment has been agreed.
13
Conclusion
Acknowledged
DHSC and NHSE told us that they were fully supportive of the new government’s aims to shift healthcare spending from treatment towards prevention, from hospitals to the community, and from analogue to digital. However, DHSC contended that these shifts would be hard to do and should take place only over …
Government Response Summary
The government states that the financial position of NHS providers is significantly improved and that the 10 Year Health Plan will consider how to build a prevention-focused health system, shift the balance of care to community settings, and maximize the impact of digital technology.
14
Conclusion
Acknowledged
According to official ONS measures, long-term productivity gains in the NHS averaged 0.6% a year over the period 1996–97 to 2018–19. But productivity subsequently fell, both before and during the pandemic, and has yet to recover fully. In March 2024, the government announced that the NHS would receive £3.4 billion …
Government Response Summary
The NHS is working hard to recover lost productivity caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, NHS productivity continues to recover and to support this NHSE are focused on increasing clinical and operational productivity, improving staff retention, technology-enabled transformation, moving care to the right setting and improving prevention and maximizing the value of our spending.
16
Conclusion
Acknowledged
We challenged NHSE on what it would do differently to achieve the ambitious annual productivity improvements it has committed to. NHSE told us annual productivity improvements were currently running at about 1.8% and it was confident that the annual gains that it has committed to of 2.0% could be achieved …
Government Response Summary
The NHS is working hard to recover lost productivity caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, NHS productivity continues to recover and to support this NHSE are focused on increasing clinical and operational productivity, improving staff retention, technology-enabled transformation, moving care to the right setting and improving prevention and maximizing the value of our spending.