Today, the Prime Minister will make a statement to the House
setting out a fair, reasonable and necessary plan to ensure the
NHS has the long term resources that it needs, and to fix the
broken social care system.
The Prime Minister, Chancellor, and Health and Social Care
Secretary will follow the statement with a press conference in
the afternoon.
The NHS cared for us during the worst pandemic in a century. Over
half a million Covid patients have been admitted to hospital
since March 2020, and on one day alone in January 2021, over
34,000 patients were in hospital.
During national restrictions the NHS remained open for anyone who
needed it. Urgent treatment, including cancer care and A&E
services, continued. NHS staff and beds were redirected from
non-urgent care to help the influx of covid patients. An entire
vaccination system was set up from scratch, administering 88
million vaccines so far and saving countless lives.
Less urgent treatment was temporarily paused and as a result, the
number of people waiting for treatment has quickly multiplied. A
new plan is needed to put the necessary resources in place to
provide care and treatment for all, and to protect the NHS’
ability to deliver the core function it was set up for.
The number of patients now waiting for elective surgery and
routine treatment in England is at a record high of over 5
million and – left unchecked - could reach 13 million by the end
of the year. Before the pandemic, nine out of ten people were
treated within 26 weeks. Despite huge efforts by NHS staff, that
is now 44 weeks, and more than 300,000 people have been waiting
over a year for non-urgent care. This includes hip replacements,
knee surgery, and cataract treatment, all of which can severely
limit someone’s quality of life.
The Prime Minister has been clear that the NHS will get the
funding it needs to cope with the consequences of this pandemic,
but it has changed the NHS for the foreseeable future. The health
service needs help to recover and build back better to improve
patient care. This means there are millions of people in need of
more operations, appointments and treatments following the
disruption the NHS has experienced as it tackled an unprecedented
global pandemic.
The challenges faced by our NHS and care sector are closely
linked. A lack of integration between the current health and care
system means people are often stuck in the wrong care setting,
and families worry about meeting the costs of care if they leave
NHS provision.
Under the current care system, anyone with assets over £23,350
pays for their care in full. This can lead to spiralling costs
and the complete liquidation of someone’s assets. Around one in
seven people now pay over £100,000, and there is an unfair and
often catastrophic discrepancy between someone who has dementia
paying for their care in full, while someone cared for by the NHS
receives care for free.
This catastrophic and often unpredictable spend affects people up
and down the country, and the Prime Minister has pledged to fix
the problem, while giving the NHS what it needs to move on from
the pandemic, and finally bringing the health and care system
closer together.
Prime Minister, said:
“The NHS is the pride of our United Kingdom, but it has been put
under enormous strain by the pandemic. We cannot expect it to
recover alone.
“We must act now to ensure the health and care system has the
long term funding it needs to continue fighting COVID and start
tackling the backlogs, and end the injustice of catastrophic
costs for social care.
“My government will not duck the tough decisions needed to get
NHS patients the treatment they need and to fix our broken social
care system.”
