division_name: National Health Service Funding
motion: <p class="indent" pid="b821.2/2" pwmotiontext="yes">That this House notes with concern that the deficit in the budgets of NHS trusts and foundation trusts in England at the end of the 2015-16 financial year was &#163;2.45 billion; further notes that members of the Health Committee wrote to the Chancellor of the Exchequer about their concerns that Government assertions on NHS funding were incorrect and risked giving a false impression; and calls on the Government to use the Autumn Statement to address the underfunding of the NHS and guarantee sustainable financing of the NHS.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b821.2/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;cut the deficit and not the NHS.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b821.2/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;investment in public services would come before tax cuts.&#8221;&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2016-11-27">27 November</phrase> 2006; Vol. 453, c. 837.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b821.6/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;We will be looking to ensure that we provide the health service that is right for everyone in this country.&#8221;&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2016-09-07">7 September</phrase> 2016; Vol. 614, c. 333.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b823.5/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The gap between what the NHS is being asked to deliver and the funding it has available is too big and is growing rapidly.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b823.5/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;it signifies a health system buckling under the strain of huge financial and operational pressures.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b823.5/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;are endemic and this is not sustainable.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b823.5/9" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;in 2010 we knew we had to implement a tight budget squeeze for five years, but we never thought it would last for ten.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b824.0/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;2018-19 will be the most pressurised year for us&#8230;will have negative per-person NHS funding growth.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b824.4/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The continued use of the figure of &#163;10 billion for the additional health spending up to 2020-21 is not only incorrect but risks giving a false impression that the NHS is awash with cash.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b825.1/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Financial stress&#8230;harming patient care&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b826.4/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Of course, the driving force behind STPs is the emergence in the last two financial years of substantial deficits.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b827.1/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Exploration of a Factory Model&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b829.1/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;welcomes the Government&#8217;s investment, on the back of a strong economy, of significant additional funding and resources each year for the NHS during the 2015 Parliament; notes that this settlement was frontloaded at the specific request of the NHS in NHS England&#8217;s own plan to deliver an improved and more sustainable service, the Five Year Forward View; and further notes that the NHS will receive a real terms increase in funding in each year of the Spending Review period, while the Labour Party&#8217;s Manifesto at the last election committed to only an extra &#163;2.5 billion a year by 2020, far less than the NHS requested.&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b832.2/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;our case for the NHS has been heard and actively supported.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b832.2/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;a good settlement for the NHS.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b832.2/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;a good settlement for the NHS&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b833.3/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;claims of mass privatisation were and are exaggerated.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b834.5/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;aggressive efficiency targets have contributed to deficits&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b840.1/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;the current acute configuration within this footprint is unsustainable&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b840.1/9" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;determine future options for hospital reconfiguration&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b840.1/11" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;engage with local authorities and other partners in their development&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b842.0/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Review our acute hospitals to ensure that we meet the changing demands of our populations, and to ensure that acute providers deliver high quality, efficient care&#8230; we will need four acute hospital sites in south west London&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b842.0/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;undertake further work, including analysis of revenue implications on 3, 4 and 5 site options&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b846.0/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;If we did nothing, we would not have enough money to run the services. This is about managing that, rather than letting it happen.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b846.0/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The financial component has been a strong driver&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b846.0/8" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The original purpose of STPs was to support local areas to improve care quality and efficiency of services . . . The emphasis from national NHS bodies has shifted over time to focus more heavily on how STPs can bring the NHS into financial balance (quickly).&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b847.1/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;There&#8217;s limited capital available but there are options to explore. Councils tend to be able to access borrowing at a very cheap rate.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b849.2/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Thousands of hospital beds are set to disappear, pregnant women will face long trips to give birth and a string of A&amp;E units will be downgraded or even closed altogether as part of controversial NHS plans to reorganise healthcare in England&#8230;Dozens of England&#8217;s 163 acute hospitals look likely to have services, including cancer, trauma and stroke care, removed as a result of the plans&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b849.2/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The NHS simply cannot do all that it is currently doing and is being asked to do in future on these funding levels.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b849.2/8" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The Trust will explore with Countess of Chester Hospital the potential for the development of a single acute general hospital covering Wirral and west Cheshire within the next 10-15 years &#8230;Another option is to move all planned surgery and procedures to Clatterbridge, while Arrowe Park will become a &#8216;hot site&#8217; dealing mainly with emergencies.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b851.1/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;We all know we need to deliver new, innovative ways to improve people&#8217;s health&#8230;That means looking beyond the traditional confines of our health and care system and the traditional health professions.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b859.4/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Whether you call it &#163;4.5 billion or &#163;10 billion does not matter.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b859.4/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;false impression that the NHS was awash with cash&#8221;,</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b859.4/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;With more than two-thirds of trusts in deficit in 2015-16 and an increasing number of clinical commissioning groups unable to keep their spending within budget, we repeat our view that the financial problems are endemic and this is not sustainable.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b859.4/9" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The Department of Health&#8217;s budget will increase by just over &#163;4 billion in real terms between 2015/16 and 2020/21. This is not enough to maintain standards of NHS care, meet rising demand from patients and deliver the transformation in services outlined in the NHS five year forward view.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b859.4/12" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;There is a real risk that these transformation plans will be used as a cover for delivering cuts, starving services of resources and patients of vital care.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b859.4/18" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The financial component has been a strong driver&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b864.11/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;the best hope to improve health and care services&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b864.11/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;increase the system&#8217;s capacity to respond to demand, help meet waiting time targets and enable investment bring important benefits for patients&#8212;most of whom are entirely relaxed over who provides their care, so long as it&#8217;s of high-quality and remains free at the point of use.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="italic" pid="b865.0/5" pwmotiontext="yes">The House divided:</p>
  
  <p pid="b865.0/6" pwmotiontext="yes">Ayes 213, Noes 306.</p>