24.09.14
Mixed reaction to Miliband’s NHS commitments
Reaction to Ed Miliband’s Labour Conference speech, where he announced a £2.5bn fund to pay for more frontline staff, has received mixed reactions from the health sector – with many saying it only tackles part of the larger crisis facing the NHS.
In his speech in Manchester, the Labour leader stated that a new ‘time to care’ fund would pay for 20,000 more nurses, 8,000 more GPs, 5,000 more care workers and 3,000 more midwives. This would all be financed by a new levy on tobacco companies, a £1.1bn clampdown on tax avoidance and a new mansion tax on homes valued over £2m.
Over the next parliament the fund would be expected to generate £12.5bn, which would go some way towards what most health policy experts, such as the King’s Fund, believe the NHS needs, as demand for its services by an ageing population will rise further.
Prof Chris Ham, chief executive of the King’s Fund, said the announcement on increased funding for the NHS shows politicians are now acknowledging the scale of the financial problem facing health and social care. Labour’s commitment to transform the way care is delivered, not just to focus on the immediate funding crisis, is welcome and points towards putting health and social care on a sustainable footing in the future, he noted.
“A combination of a mansion tax, tobacco levy and tax avoidance initiatives alone will not fill the growing funding gap,” said Prof Ham. “The announcement is a significant step forward but we will need to see Labour's spending plans in full before we know whether they will be enough to meet the funding gap.”
Transformation
The NHS Confederation stated that investment for transformation is a key part of the NHS jigsaw; but a commitment to allowing local services to lead change is equally vital.
Chief executive Rob Webster said that it is vital investment in health services is matched with a settlement in social care that allows a similar, much needed transformation. He added that the very nature of health service delivery means that most NHS spending goes on staff costs. So it is right that money for service transformation is targeted at ensuring the NHS has more staff with the right skills working in the right places.
“Often this is in the community, and includes GPs, community-based nurses, mental health specialists, and staff who can help people live more healthily, for longer, in their own homes,” noted Webster. “Linking transformation to staffing needs to be done in ways that will support local models and the numbers announced today should reflect local plans rather than a top-down allocation of posts.”
Political response
However, the Labour leader's political rivals attacked his speech, Chancellor George Osborne said it was “extraordinary” there had not been a single mention of the deficit. He tweeted: “If you can't fix the economy you can't fund the NHS.”
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt said: “Spending actually went up £2.7bn in real terms last year alone. So Labour are promising significantly less than we have actually delivered.”
Lib Dem MP Tim Farron, who is president of the party, said the speech, which contained many first name references to ordinary people Miliband had met on his visits, was not that of “a prime minister in waiting”.
The official Lib Dem party response added: “You can’t trust Labour with the economy – and you can’t trust them on the NHS either. Under Labour the number of NHS managers rose six times faster than the number of nurses, executive pay leapt 120%, and the bill for administrators rocketed from £3 to £7bn.”
Person centred care
National Voices, the health and social care charity coalition, stated that it welcomed the commitments from Miliband, but called for more detail on the way this money will be tied to services that deliver person centred care.
Jeremy Taylor, National Voices’ chief executive, said: “We need to see this money supporting a transformation to real person centred care. This means care in which people have a much greater say in the decisions about their health, are supported to live well at home, and can plan their care in partnership with professionals.”
Nurses and midwives
Both the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) supported the Labour leader’s proposals for greater funding for more staff.
Cathy Warwick, chief executive of the RCM, said the move shows that Ed Milliband understands the crucial role midwives play in ensuring the highest quality of care is available to women, their babies and indeed the whole family.
“An investment in midwives not only improves outcomes but also has the potential to lead to reductions in expenditure,” she added.
While Dr Peter Carter, chief executive and general secretary of the RCN, stated that a long-term plan to keep nurses in the NHS and to recruit more for the coming demand is very welcome, and nurses on the front line will be relieved to know that their concerns have been heeded.
“It is difficult to overstate the scale of the challenge which will face health and social care over the coming decade,” he said. “More nurses are needed to tackle a range of issues - people are living longer, with a 70% rise in people reaching the age of 100 over the past decade.”
(Image: c. Owen Humphreys/PA Wire)
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