What was claimed
The government has given the NHS the money that it asked for.
Our verdict
The head of NHS England says this is not the case.
Has the NHS got the money it asked for?
29 September 2017
“We've given the NHS the money that they asked for.”
Karen Bradley, 28 September 2017
The NHS “got less than we asked for”, the chief of NHS England Simon Stevens told MPs in the Public Accounts Committee in January.
Mr Stevens also said last year that the money the government has committed is at the lowest end of a range of options the NHS set out.
For it to be enough, he said the service also needs to see “continuing access to social care” and “enhanced effort on prevention and public health”. Public health spending is expected to fall and spending on social care is set to fall short of what experts think is needed.
Total health spending—the Department of Health’s budget—will increase by around £5.9 billion over the period 2015/16 to 2020/21, while spending specifically on NHS England will increase by £9 billion.
The government did agree to ‘front loading’ the spending increases over this period—meaning that more money will be made available in the early years, and comparatively smaller increases in the later years.