Westminster insiders have indicated that the Secretary of State for Health (Mr Alan Milburn) will bid for £30bn extra for the National Health Service in the forthcoming Treasury spending review (our Lobby correspondent writes). The money, he may argue, must be committed before the next general election to cover the years up to 2006.
One well-placed source said: "In the run up to the next election some of the benefits of the Chancellor's current £21bn extra funding will be seen, particularly a reduction in waiting lists and an influx of fully trained nursing staff.
Official spokesmen have refused to comment on such long-term spending forecasts, but no-one in Whitehall denies that the Prime Minister was seriously rattled by last week's political focus on the state of the NHS sparked by Labour peer Lord Winston's attack and the alleged shortage of intensive care facilities caused by the 'flu epidemic.
Analysts have suggested that Mr Blair, based on his own comments, is moving towards a vote-pleasing cash injection.
In a television broadcast on January 16, he pledged that by 2006 British health spending, as a share of national wealth, currently 6.7 per cent, would match the European Community average of 8 per cent.
Initially, that was held to mean additional spending of around £12bn, but the Times reported on January 18 that, because of continuing growth in the economy, the figure must be revised over the next five years and that the true cost of the commitment could be £24bn.
Department of Health sources have confirmed that the effect of inflation, above-inflation pay awards and the escalating cost of medicines and equipment will whittle down the true value of the current £21bn extra spending to £10.9bn, according to some estimates, and to £5.3bn, according to others.