NHS funding 'must rise'

A report on NHS funding that warns the service could collapse without significant extra funds is to be published by the government on Tuesday.

Chancellor Gordon Brown commissioned former NatWest bank chief executive Derek Wanless to examine how much money the NHS will need over the next two decades.

It is widely predicted that an interim version of the report will be issued at the same time as the chancellor unveils his pre-budget report.

The Wanless report is expected to say that the NHS will come under ever increasing pressure as the population ages, and technological advances rapidly push up the cost of medicine.

It is likely to conclude that the health service is seriously underfunded, and that spending will have to continue to rise at an accelerated level.

Review

The chancellor is expected to tell the Commons that the whole question of NHS funding will have to be reconsidered on the back of the report.

Mr Brown announced in his budget in March 2000 that that spending on the NHS would rise by 6.1% a year over inflation over a four year period to £68.7bn in April 2003.

Derek Wanless was commissioned to investigate NHS funding

But there is increasing concern that this will not be enough.

David Hinchliffe, chairman of the Commons Health Committee, said the NHS required far reaching reform, not just increased investment.

He told the BBC: "Clearly the NHS faces increasing demands.

"My concern is that we are avoiding debate about some of the key structural weaknesses that do, in the end, cost a huge amount of money."

For instance, Mr Hinchliffe said failure to invest in social care was resulting in 6,000 hospital beds a day being blocked by delayed discharges.

Intense pressure

Ministers are under intense pressure to reduce the amount of time that patients wait for hospital treatment. Currently, waiting times are shorter in France, Germany and the US.

NHS trusts have also warned that expenditure continues to outstrip income.

On Sunday, Labour Party chairman Charles Clarke admitted that Labour has so far failed to transform the NHS.

In a BBC Radio 4 interview, he said: "The fact is there have been massive improvements in some parts of the NHS but in other areas we have even gone backwards."

People are dying in this country from illnesses and conditions from which they would not die if they lived in other countries

Michael Howard

Health Secretary Alan Milburn has travelled to Spain to investigate the way that the private and public sectors work closely together.

Shadow Chancellor Michael Howard said pouring more and more public money into the NHS was not a long-term solution.

He said: "You need to reform the public services and then you will begin to see the results that everybody wants to see.

"People are dying in this country from illnesses and conditions from which they would not die if they lived in other countries.

"If you look at those other countries the big difference is not in the amount that the tax payer contributes to these services, the difference is in their ability to harness other resources which they can bring to bear on these problems.

"We got to find a way both of reforming the services so they deliver healthcare more effectively, and we have got to find a way of bringing other resources in so that we can match the performance of those other countries."

It is thought unlikely that the chancellor will use his pre-budget report to make any announcement about how much money the NHS will receive in the long-term.

That decision is more likely to be announced in next year's comprehensive spending review.