NHS bosses have warned the chancellor that he needs to find an extra £8 billion to fund Covid costs or they’ll have to cut care.
NHS chiefs said the treasury was trying to pay for the pandemic out of the regular budget for the health service, which would delay the care of patients already on long waiting lists.
They accused chancellor Rishi Sunak of not meeting the full cost of the care of more than 8,000 hospital patients currently being treated for Covid in England, the Times reported.
NHS Providers chief executive Chris Hopson told the newspaper the group was worried ‘the chancellor and the prime minister are going to renege on their commitment to cover all the NHS’s Covid-19 costs’.
He said the decision to only give NHS staff a 1% increase instead of an ‘agreed assumption of a 2.1%’ showed this.
Hopson, who represents chief executives of hospital and ambulance trusts, claimed ministers were ‘clearly now looking for other ways to meet those costs, including robbing mainstream NHS budgets’.
He pleaded with Sunak to extend support for the NHS until September or services may be cut by April 1.
Hopson said the ‘absolute worst-case scenario’ was if the government chose not to cover extra Covid costs for the next financial year, adding: ‘That would leave the NHS with an unthinkable £7 billion – £8 billion gap for the first half of next year.’
NHS Confederation Danny Mortimer said ministers should be honest with the public.
He added: ‘The government faces the politically unacceptable legacy of hundreds of thousands of patients left with deteriorating conditions for the remainder of the parliament.’
The pandemic has caused an explosion in people on NHS wating lists, with the current number standing at 4.5 million.
Treasury sources told the Times it was not planning to force the NHS to pay for Covid from existing budgets.
They added there was currently £18 billion in pandemic funds waiting to be spent.
The government said the NHS was scheduled to receive £7 billion prior to the pandemic.
A spokeswoman added: “We have been clear that we will give the NHS what it needs. We’ve invested £63 billion this year and £22 billion next year.”
The government has also been criticised over its 1% increase in pay for NHS workers announced last Thursday.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Prime Minister Boris Johnson have both defended the planned increase, saying there are pressures on public finances.
Mr Hancock defended the wage recommendation on Friday, arguing there were ‘issues of the affordability’ following £400 billion of borrowing by the Government during its response to the crisis.
Labour says the increase could actually make new nurses £300 worse off in real terms.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which has decided to set up a £35 million industrial action fund to support members wanting to strike, has warned a large number of nurses could leave the profession following the suggested pay rise.
On Sunday, a demonstration against the proposed 1% pay rise in St Peter’s Square, Manchester, ended with one elderly medic being arrested and the organiser being fined £10,000 for breaching Covid restrictions.
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