Streeting to hand working class areas greater share of NHS funds

Telegraph

6 hours ago

Working-class areas will get a greater share of NHS funds under plans to help places with the worst health.
Wes Streeting will say on Wednesday that billions of pounds will be diverted to coastal towns and deprived places, with extra cash to boost GP provision.
It follows repeated criticism from Red Wall voters about the impact of Labour's policies – including welfare reform and winter fuel payments – on northern England.
In a speech in Blackpool, Mr Streeting will say that the 10-year health plan will 'restore the promise of the NHS, to provide first-class healthcare for everyone in our country'.
Think tanks and patients' groups welcomed the attempt to bring more GPs into areas which were short of them, but warned against creating a new kind of two-tier system, reflecting 'class-based politics'.
Meanwhile, resident doctors – formerly known as junior doctors – have said they are 'excited to go again' on another round of strikes in an effort to derail the 10-year plan.
Consultants and specialist doctors will also vote on their appetite to strike despite all having agreed to end industrial action last year after receiving bumper pay rises. They warned that the Government could not deliver its reforms without them.
In his speech, Mr Streeting will say that £2.2 billion previously set aside to write off NHS deficits will instead go to some of the poorest areas, which have the worst health.
He has already vowed to end a culture of 'overspending', which has seen trusts requiring bailouts after building up deficits.
And he will say the GP funding formula – which gives more to more affluent areas – will be rewritten to divert more to the poor.
The plan, due next week, will promise a review of the way funds are allocated as part of efforts to address health inequalities.
In the speech today, Mr Streeting is expected to say: 'The truth is, those in greatest need often receive the worst quality healthcare. It flies in the face of the values the NHS was founded on.
'The circumstances of your birth shouldn't determine your worth. A core ambition of our 10-year plan will be to restore the promise of the NHS, to provide first class healthcare for everyone in our country and end the postcode lottery.'
Dr Sean Phillips, head of health and social care at the Policy Exchange, said getting GP funding on a fair footing was crucial.
But he said: 'Explicitly targeting 'working class communities' raises questions. One of the principles of the NHS constitution is that 'everyone counts'.
'This sense of fairness is fundamental given we've seen declining satisfaction with the NHS in recent years. Reforms should be based on clinical need, not class-based politics – which runs the risk of creating the perception of another type of two-tier service.'
Dennis Reed, from patient group Silver Voices, said: 'If you focus on areas purely based on poverty you can end up forgetting about some of those with the greatest health needs, which can include elderly people living in affluent areas.'
'Equity is a founding principle of the NHS and it's absolutely right to aim for it. But I think when you are talking about shifting money to what are essentially Red Wall seats you have to be very careful that there isn't a whiff that money is being targeted for electoral reasons.
'If there is any hint of pork barrel politics, shifting money to your supporters, that really can undermine any efforts to achieve equity, it is really important that we treat the NHS as a shared national endeavour rather than pit any one group against another.'
Dr Becks Fisher, director of research and policy for the Nuffield Trust, said: 'The government has rightly recognised that tackling health inequalities will be impossible unless this is changed – and today's announcement is a positive step.'
However she said it was the fourth promise since 2004 to reform the system, adding: 'The true test will be whether this new review results in meaningful change through fairer funding across general practice.
'It's good that the government recognises that they'll need to make money available to realise these general practice reforms, but tight finances mean there may be some difficult decisions to weigh up.'
Last year Mr Streeting ordered the NHS to prioritise clearing backlogs in parts of the country with the highest levels of worklessness.
Specialist teams were sent to the 20 hospital trusts in the areas with the highest waits and biggest rates of economic inactivity.
The move has seen waiting lists in those areas falling twice as fast as the rest of the country, 'helping get sick Brits back to health and back to work,' he will say today.
'Thanks to the reforms we've made to bear down on wasteful spending, we can now invest the savings in working class communities that need it most. Where towns have the greatest health needs and the fewest GPs, we will prioritise investment to rebuild your NHS and rebuild the health of your community.'
Currently, GP surgeries which serve working class areas receive on average 10 per cent less funding per patient than practices in more affluent areas.
Figures from the Royal College of General Practitioners show that practices in the most deprived areas have around 300 more patients per GP than the most affluent regions, with around 2,450 patients per head.
Officials said the new policy was an attempt to tackle a phenomenon dubbed 'the inverse care law' with those most in need likely to get the least help, and suffer the longest waits.
People in working class areas and coastal towns spend more of their lives in ill health. And life expectancy among women with the lowest incomes has fallen in recent years, after decades of progress.
The policy will be funded by improved financial discipline, officials said.
Over the past 14 years, NHS trusts have relied heavily on deficit support, with the taxpayer forced to cover the shortfall in their budgets.
This year, systems that fail to meet agreed financial plans will not be bailed out, with such funding phased out entirely from 2026/27, in an attempt to end a culture of 'rewards for failure'.