Yesterday, Health Secretary Sajid Javid announced a package of measures to help deal with those horrendous and ever worsening NHS waiting lists.
Yet, as the Labour Party keep saying, even before the pandemic people felt like things had gotten worse.
And as we all know, various opposition politicians - and even less than rigorous media outlets - go so far as to imply the service has been cut over the last ten years.
MPs tell me they regularly receive letters alleging that the NHS has in some way had its budget cut.I am absolutely convinced that if you were to take a poll of the public, asking “has the NHS been cut over the last decade” a substantial proportion, perhaps even a majority, would answer in the affirmative.
British Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Sajid Javid walks outside Downing Street.
TOM NICHOLSON
But they would be wrong.Very wrong, although for many not wrong through fault of their own.Often this misinformed impression is the fault of a media that simply too often ignores or twists the facts in front of them.
So here is a corrective. The NHS has not been cut.In fact more cash has been plunged in to this organisation than ever before. Tens of billions more.Here is the definitive budget, inflation adjusted I should add, from the Kings Fund.
In 2009/10, the NHS had a budget of 124.1 billion pounds.By 2022/23 the NHS has a budget of 173.8 billion pounds.
That’s excluding covid specific funding.It represents an increase of 50 billion pounds, or £962 million extra every week.
Yes, in real terms funding for the NHS has swelled by 40% since 2010. A massive 40% increase.And yes the population grew a bit too, but only by 8%.
So some quick maths on the back of a cigarette packet, puts per person funding at roughly £1,977 in 2009/10, up to £2,586 in 2022/23.
That’s 31% growth.Yes, you heard that correctly.
31% more cash into the NHS for every single person in the country compared to 2010, inflation adjusted I should add, and yet to many it still feels like this service has been cut.Maybe, just maybe, that says more about how it's run than how much more money is thrown at it every single year.
