21.09.15
NHS will crash within two years without billion-pound investment – Lamb
The NHS could crash within two years if the government does not inject billions of pounds into the service, former health minister Norman Lamb has said.
In an interview with the Observer, Lamb accused the government of being dishonest by failing to admit the scale of the problems the state service faces as it reaches breaking point.
Lamb pointed to a growing number of private companies and other organisations contracted by councils to provide care that are refusing to re-tender due to squeezed budgets, adding to cuts of over 40% starving out local authorities since 2010.
Elderly social care and mental health services would be hit in particular, with patients having to use already overstretched hospitals instead.
He said: “If the investment is not made upfront and in the early period of this Parliament, you could see serious failures in the system. The system will crash. Elderly people won’t get the care they need, and it will be people with mental ill health who suffer most, because that is where the squeeze always comes.”
Lamb said he does not believe anyone in the NHS thinks the promised extra money is enough to save the crashing system, adding that the government “talks very vaguely” about an extra £8bn by 2020 despite the cash being needed immediately.
“If it comes in 2019-20, the system will have crashed by then. I think the next two years will make or break the NHS and the care system,” he said.
But a Department of Health spokesperson said: “We are investing the additional £8bn that the NHS itself has said it needs to implement its own plan for the future.
“The NHS must deliver its side of the plan by implementing cost-control initiatives the government has brought forward, like clamping down on staffing agencies and expensive management consultants.
“We’re already bringing the NHS and councils together, which is helping people to live independently at home and saving money in the long term.”
Heidi Alexander MP, shadow health secretary, said Lamb was right to highlight the “severity and immediacy” of the financial pressures facing the state service – but regretted the fact that Lamb wasn’t “this upfront” during his time in government.
She said: “The worrying truth is that hospital bosses all over the country face a stark choice between balancing the books and delivering safe care. Cuts to social care budgets, the rapidly rising bill for agency staff and a lack of joined up prevention and early intervention services mean that the NHS is close to breaking point.
“Norman Lamb calls for honesty about the scale of problem but he needs to be honest about the legacy of the last government of which he was a part.”
Lamb will address the Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth tomorrow, when he is expected to announce he is open to new funding ideas, such as the creation of an NHS tax.