NHS to Redirect £2.2 Billion to Support Healthcare in Disadvantaged Areas
The Department of Health has revealed plans to redirect over £2 billion in NHS savings towards healthcare improvements in England’s most underserved communities, with particular focus on working-class areas, coastal towns, and rural regions.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting is to outline today the initiative during a policy address in Blackpool, explaining how efficiency measures across the health service have generated substantial savings that will now fund enhanced medical services where they are needed most.
The announcement comes as part of preparations for the Government’s forthcoming NHS 10-year strategic plan, which aims to tackle persistent health inequalities across different regions and communities.
NHS management teams have successfully reduced expenditure through streamlined administrative functions and reduced reliance on temporary staffing arrangements. Financial forecasting by health trusts has also improved, creating additional budget capacity for frontline services.
The £2.2 billion investment package will target several key areas:
- Additional medical staff recruitment
- Enhanced medicine supplies
- Modern healthcare technology and equipment
- Improved GP surgery funding in underserved areas
Government data indicates that GP practices serving working-class communities currently receive approximately 10% less funding per patient compared to surgeries in more affluent locations. The new funding arrangements seek to address this disparity.
We Streeting emphasised the importance of ensuring healthcare quality reflects need rather than geography: “Our objective is to eliminate the postcode lottery that currently affects healthcare access and quality across the country.”
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said:
“NHS leaders will welcome the government’s commitment to target investment into areas with entrenched health inequalities. Addressing these inequalities through the government’s three shifts is a vital part of improving everyone’s experiences of care and putting the NHS on a sustainable long-term footing. Keeping people healthier and out of hospital by increasing prevention and moving care closer to home is essential for both the NHS and patients as it will reduce demand on hospitals, reduce waiting times and save taxpayers money.”
“While a key part of this will be driving down elective waiting times, we must ensure this doesn’t translate to an expansion of hospital services when the goal is to provide more services more cost-effectively in primary and community care.
“In order to achieve these shifts we know that primary and community care services must be bolstered, including tackling the existing workforce and funding challenges. These are issues which have left practices in underserved communities struggling for funding, with many already having been forced to close. That is why we also welcome the pledge to review the funding formula for general practice.”
“But it is essential that this review is not treated as a simple exercise in redistribution of existing funding but rather a greater share of new funding going to those practices facing the greatest levels of need from the populations they serve.”
