THE UK government will allocate an additional £2.2bn to NHS services in England’s most deprived and coastal areas in a move aimed at reducing health inequalities.
Health secretary Wes Streeting will announce the funding in a speech in Blackpool on Wednesday. He is expected to call the investment a significant step towards providing equal standards of care across the country, The Guardian reported.
Streeting will highlight that areas with the greatest levels of illness and need often have fewer GPs, longer waits for treatment, and underperforming NHS services—a situation known as “the inverse care law.” He will describe the funding as a down payment on a major redistribution of NHS resources.
“The truth is, those in greatest need often receive the worst quality healthcare. It flies in the face of the values the NHS was founded on. The circumstances of your birth shouldn’t determine your worth,” he is expected to say.
The £2.2bn was originally allocated for deficit reduction across England’s 215 health trusts but has been released after NHS England chief executive Sir Jim Mackey instructed trusts to balance their budgets.
Streeting has also commissioned a review of the Carr-Hill formula, which determines GP funding allocation. The Guardian reported that the Nuffield Trust criticised the formula as “inequitable” and “deeply flawed.”
Dr Becks Fisher of the Nuffield Trust said there is no guarantee the government will succeed in funding the changes through savings elsewhere in the NHS.
Louise Gittins of the Local Government Association noted that health inequalities cost the NHS £4.8bn annually and the wider economy up to £32bn.
Prof Kate Pickett of York University welcomed the funding but called for cancelling welfare cuts and starting a discussion on basic income to improve public health.
