Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, has announced £6.3 bn in new funding ‘for frontline services and upgrades to NHS buildings and facilities in England’, in his Autumn Budget Statement.
Of this, the Chancellor said £3.5 bn would be in the form of capital investment for buildings and facilities, delivered by 2022-2023, with the remaining £2.8 bn in additional monies provided over 2017-2018, 2018-2019, and 2019-2020, ‘for day-today spending, for example on surgeries and treatments’, and to help the NHS ‘get back on track’ to meet its performance targets on A&E waiting and post-referral treatment times
In unveiling his Budget, the Chancellor said: “It is central to this Government’s vision that everyone has access to our NHS, free at the point of need. That is why we endorsed and funded the NHS’s Five Year Forward View in 2014, and met its funding ask – providing an extra £10 billion in real terms per year by 2020. But even with this additional funding, we acknowledge that the service remains under pressure, and today we respond.”
Of the £3.5 bn in additional capital investment for buildings and facilities, the Treasury said £2.6 bn would go to the NHS’s Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships ‘for improvements in facilities which will help local areas deliver more integrated care for patients and better meet demand for services’. The first 10 per cent of this funding will be allocated ‘to the highest quality bids from STPs with the strongest potential, to help them meet future demand and develop local clinical and financial; accountability’. Subject to approvals, the following 12 schemes will initially be given funding, with the remainder ‘allocated in due course’:
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Barnsley Hospital Children’s Emergency Department and Assessment Unit scheme (South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw STP).
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Doncaster Urgent and Emergency Care scheme (South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw STP).
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Leeds Community Child and Adolescent Mental Health Inpatient Unit scheme (West Yorkshire STP).
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Chesterfield Urgent Care scheme (Derbyshire STP).
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Russell’s Hall Hospital Dudley Urgent Care Centre scheme (Black Country STP).
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Birmingham Children’s Hospital Emergency Department scheme (Birmingham and Solihull STP).
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South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust Out of Hospital Care scheme (Coventry and Warwickshire STP).
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Mid and South Essex Acute Hospitals reconfiguration scheme (Mid-and-South Essex STP).
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South West London and St George’s NHS Mental Health Trust Estates Modernisation scheme (South West London STP).
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Frimley Out of Hospital Integrated Care Hubs scheme (Frimley Health STP).
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Bracknell Forest Heathlands scheme (Frimley Health STP).
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Chiltern and Aylesbury Vale Primary Care Hub scheme (Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West STP).
The Treasury said a further £700 million of the £3.5 bn would ‘support turnaround plans in the Trusts facing the biggest challenges’, and help ‘tackle the most urgent and critical maintenance issues – to help ensure every patient is treated in a safe environment, with the highest quality care’. There will also be £200 m in funding to support energy efficiency programmes ‘to help reduce NHS energy bills’, and ‘fund technology that will allow more staff time to be directed towards treating patients’.
