The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 264 No 7089 p457
March 25, 2000 News

Budget billions boost for NHS, but PM says "Step change is needed in reform"

The National Health Service is to receive an additional £2bn in funding for the financial year starting in April and real terms increases of 6.1 per cent over the next three years, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr Gordon Brown) announced in the budget on March 21. However, the Prime Minister (Mr Tony Blair) made it clear in a statement to Parliament on March 22 that the new funding would be linked to "fundamental reform" of the NHS and the way it works. The Chancellor's announcement means that the budget for the NHS in 2000-01 will rise from a planned £52.2bn to £54.2bn, a real terms increase of 7.4 per cent. The budget will subsequently rise to £68.7bn in 2003-04. The Prime Minister said that by that point spending on the NHS would be equivalent to 7.6 per cent of gross domestic product, going some way to fulfil his pledge to raise NHS spending to European average levels.

A four-year spending plan for the NHS will be unveiled in July

In his statement Mr Blair said to health care professionals in the NHS: "You challenged us to come up with the money - we have done so. We rose to your challenge, now we ask you to rise to ours."
Highlighting differences in performance across health authorities and trusts, the Prime Minister said that the reasons for the differences were complex: some were due to lack of money, some to poor management, some to systems failures, some were the result of outdated professional demarcations and professional failures.
He said that over the next few months he and the Health Ministers in England, Scotland and Wales would be consulting with the health care professions about the Government's plans for the NHS. A new cabinet committee, chaired by the Prime Minister, would be established to look at expected performance outcomes and, in July, a four-year modernisation plan for the NHS would be unveiled.
"I want all parts of the NHS to sign up to the plan," he said.
Responding to the Prime Minister's statement, the Leader of the Opposition (Mr William Hague) said that it was clear that the Prime Minister had taken personal responsibility for the NHS.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society welcomed the Government's commitment to inject more cash into the NHS and said that it would like to see some of the money used for developing pharmaceutical services which were currently hampered because of a lack of investment.