It comes on the same day a cross-party commission of MPs found that hospitals are being overwhelmed because the NHS is failing in its mission to treat people closer to their homes.
MPs have criticised the boss of NHS England in an increasingly bitter row about under pressure A&Es.
The chair of the Health and Social Care committee said they had been left “disappointed” after NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard and other senior health officials gave evidence on Wednesday. It comes on the day a cross-party commission of MPs found that hospitals are being overwhelmed because the NHS is failing in its mission to treat people closer to their homes.
The Public Accounts Committee concluded the “long-held ambition to move more care from hospitals to community” to keep people out of A&Es concluded it has “stalled”. Ms Pritchard told the committee there were “factual inaccuracies” in the PAC report, adding: “I would like to say NHS England is absolutely not complacent about productivity, and it is completely wrong to suggest otherwise.” She added: “There is no shortage of fresh thinking in the NHS.”
After her appearance, Health and Social Care committee chair Layla Moran, said: “This morning’s evidence session was an opportunity for NHS leadership to prove their drive and dynamism. Regrettably, we were left disappointed and frustrated. We had hoped for a sharpness in witnesses’ responses, but were exasperated by the lengthy and diffuse answers that were given to us and will be writing to them to seek the clarity that we expected to hear in the evidence session.”
In response to the PAC report NHS England released a strongly worded statement blaming “starvation” of funds for capital investment under the Tories as well as “unprecedented strikes and a fragile social care sector”.
It came after England’s top doctor warned half the population will end up in A&E every year if more care is not delivered by GPs, community clinics and social care. Sir Stephen Powis, NHS England’s medical director, said if more care is not shifted to community settings to keep people out of hospitals then on current trends the equivalent of around half the population will be visiting A&E every year by 2034.
The ambition to move care from hospitals to the community existed under the previous Tory government and has become a central “shift” being championed by Labour now they are in power. However the report shows this ambition has not previously been matched by effective incentives throughout the complex NHS ecosystem.
The report found that redirecting funds to areas of the NHS which will enable this shift in the long term – such as GP, dental and mental health services – is not happening because of pressures on health leaders to use scarce funds for current priorities.
A source close to Health Secretary Wes Streeting told the Mirror: “Pointless paperwork, stodgy process and a severe lack of urgency – this is exactly what Wes has been fighting against and he is determined to win. The whole system needs a proper shake-up and he’s the only person with the guts to do it.”
NHS England chief financial officer Julian Kelly was asked by MPs how much of the £10.6 billion funding increase will be taken up with increasing costs.
The committee heard that an expected 2.8% staff pay rise would cost about £3.8 billion, while inflation will take £1.9 billion pounds and the cost of new treatments already in the pipeline about £500 million. He added that a new funding settlement for GPs is about £800 million. Mr Kelly said: “There is not a lot of new investment that will be going into new transformation programmes because we can’t afford it.”
