New report from the King’s Fund says NHS trusts will need to cut staff to cope with planned tighter budgets
The NHS will have cut staff if it is to meet tighter budget requirements, a new report has warned.
The report, from independent think tank the King’s Fund, said the government should be honest about the NHS’ spending plans – especially given that patient demand is on the rise.
Staff costs account for just under half of total NHS spending and approximately 70 per cent of a typical hospital’s total costs. These costs have grown as a proportion of overall spend over time with the National Audit Office finding that, between 2011-12 and 2014-15, the share of income spent by acute trusts on staff costs rose by 8.1 per cent.
Difficulties in recruiting and retaining GPs, and a subsequent decline in patient experience, has led the King’s Fund to conclude that ‘general practice is in crisis’.The number of community nurses also declined significantly between 2009 and 2014, with some community care providers expressing concerns about ensuring adequate staffing numbers, skill mix and caseload.
The King’s Fund report revealed that NHS providers are set to record a deficit of £2.45bn for 2015-16 – around £650 million more than was planned, and nearly three times higher than in 2014-15. This year, the government also injected an extra £3.8 bn into its £110bn budget to help ease the situation, and similar amounts are promised until 2020.
Helen McKenna, senior policy adviser at the King's Fund and one of the report’s authors, said: "Politicians need to be honest with the public about what the NHS can offer with the funding allocated to it. It is no longer credible to argue that the NHS can continue to meet increasing demand for services, deliver current standards of care and stay within its budget.”
The report was released just days before the announcement of a major initiative by the NHS to control its spending, and get hospitals and other trusts to stick to agreed spending limits.
Stephen Dalton, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said that the King’s Fund report emphasised the severity of the financial crisis within the NHS is, as well as how the EU referendum result has created even more financial uncertainty. “The report stresses the impact on community and mental health trusts, many of which continue to see their income decline,” he said. “The cause of this should be of no surprise to anyone, as funding simply does not match demand.”
Other factors have also affected how the NHS spends its budget. The volume and complexity of GP workloads have increased substantially in recent years, with consultations growing by more than 15 per cent between 2010-11 and 2014-15. This has not been matched by growth in either funding – spending on general practice in England fell by 0.4 per cent over the same period – nor workforce numbers.
A department of health spokesman said the NHS is "performing well and delivering safer, more compassionate care. Some providers are under financial pressure caused by big rises in demand and our ageing population, but are investing an extra £10bn a year by 2020 to deliver the NHS's own plan for the future.”