Milburn outlines NHS cash boost

The funds are aimed at new drugs and treatments

Health chiefs are to receive millions of extra pounds next April as part of government efforts to improve the NHS.

Health Secretary Alan Milburn announced that health authorities across England will see their funding increase by 8.5% next year.

Further resources will be made available to tackle health inequalities, big killers such as cancer and heart disease and to NHS staff.

Mr Milburn told the House of Commons that the funds - announced in the budget earlier this year - will improve services across the country.

The step change in resources we have made available to the NHS must now produce a step change in results

Health Secretary Alan Milburn

But Shadow Health Secretary Liam Fox described the statement as a "series of reannouncements" and said there was "very little" new.

He welcomed the increased funding and added that the Conservatives would match the increase if elected.

"We again pledge to match that increase in NHS funding," he said.

Health inequalities

Under the government's plans, every health authority in England will receive on average an extra £29m in April.

Some £130m will be made available to tackle "health inequalities" between the poor and well off.

A further £65m has been earmarked to pay for a new cost of living supplement for 100,000 nurses, midwives, health visitors and other professionals in the NHS.

From next April, NHS staff in London will receive at least £600 more with up to £1,000 for ward sisters and senior nurses.

Staff in high cost areas outside the capital, like Hertfordshire and Oxfordshire, will also receive up to £600.

"These extra resources will help in our efforts to recruit an extra 20,000 nurses and 6,500 therapists to the NHS over the next four years," Mr Milburn said.

A total of £100m will be used to drive up standards across the NHS, with those achieving the highest standards receiving extra cash.

And £450m is to be targeted at helping the NHS to cut the number of deaths from cancer and heart disease.

The funds will be targeted at reducing waiting times and helping to make new drugs and treatments accessible to patients as they become available.

Better planning

Mr Milburn's announcement gives health authorities, for the first time, details of their spending allocations for the next three years instead of just 12 months.

Mr Milburn told the House of Commons that health authorities would receive a further 6% rise in 2002 and the same increase in 2003.

The move is designed to make forward planning easier for NHS managers.

On top of highlighting additional resources, the health secretary will stress the government expects to see the NHS deliver significantly better results.

Mr Milburn said the money would improve standards across the NHS.

Alan Milburn wants the NHS to deliver better results

"We will no longer tolerate second rate services in any part of the NHS."

He said the NHS would have to meet the government's challenge to improve care for patients.

"The step change in resources we have made available to the NHS must now produce a step change in results.

"None of it will be easy. Most of it will take time. But the NHS now has the best opportunity it has ever had to bring about the radical changes needed to give patients better and faster services."

'Tough choices'

In his statement, Mr Milburn acknowledged that spending on the NHS had not risen as quickly as many had hoped during Labour's first two years in office.

"But the tough choices that we took then are paying off for the NHS now," he said.

"Over the five years from 1999, the NHS budget will grow by one half in cash terms and by one third in real terms."

Stephen Thornton, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents health authority managers, welcomed the announcement.

"This year's health authority allocations are a vote of confidence in NHS management.

"We are pleased that very little of the money has been earmarked - this is a clear indication that the Government believes health authorities should plan according to local need within the context of the NHS Plan."

Professor Gordon McVie, director general of the Cancer Research Campaign, said he hoped the extra funds would ensure drugs were made available to patients on the basis of whether they were beneficial rather than on whether they were affordable.

"It obviously means that health authorities around the country will have more funds to buy any NICE-approved treatments.

"Hopefully drugs will be judged on their efficacy rather than their cost-effectiveness."