UK Budget to Provide Major Boost for Health Service, Reeves Says

The UK budget includes substantial funding aimed at strengthening the National Health Service (NHS), with goals to improve patient care, reduce waiting times, and address staffing shortages. Rachel Reeves emphasized that this investment will support the NHS in managing current demands and future challenges, marking a significant step toward enhancing healthcare services across the UK.

Britain’s finance minister, Rachel Reeves, plans to unveil billions in NHS funding in Wednesday’s budget, aimed at purchasing new hospital equipment and increasing the number of operations.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer noted that tax increases will be essential to restore public services, assuring there will be no return to austerity, despite fiscal challenges faced after Labour's July election win. “I am ending the neglect and underfunding the NHS has experienced for over a decade,” Reeves said on Monday.

“We’ll be the government that took the NHS from its worst crisis in history, revived it, and prepared it for a bright future.”

The finance ministry announced 1.5 billion pounds ($1.95 billion) for new surgical hubs and scanners, plus 70 million pounds for radiotherapy machines. Additional funds will allow 40,000 more weekly elective appointments, totaling 1.8 billion pounds invested since July.

The final funding amount will be confirmed by Reeves on Wednesday.

The NHS has struggled through recent difficult winters with backlogs in elective care from COVID-19 and strikes. Starmer promised a 10-year NHS reform plan in England following an independent report declaring the service in critical condition. He has also negotiated pay agreements with healthcare workers, ending a strike cycle that the former Conservative government blamed for increased waiting times.

The ministry also said the funding would support the NHS target for 92% of patients to wait less than 18 weeks for treatment.

The NHS is managed by the British government in England, with health services policy devolved in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

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Source: Reuters‍