Press release: NHS Confederation response to Civitas study into extra investment in the NHS
11 Aug 2006
Nigel Edwards, Policy Director at the NHS Confederation which represents more than 90 per cent of NHS organisations, said:
"Suggestions that the NHS has failed to increase productivity and use the new investment effectively are unfair. Official figures show that waiting lists and waiting times have both dramatically reduced since 2002 despite the fact that the NHS has been facing a legacy of underinvestment.
"Due to chronic underspending on the NHS throughout the 1980s and 1990s a high proportion of the extra investment in the health service since 2002 has been spent compensating for previous funding shortages."
Money in the NHS: the facts - an NHS Confederation report published last year - shows that of the new money invested in the NHS in 2004/05 50 per cent (£3.4 billion) was spent recruiting more staff and paying higher salaries through pay reforms for existing staff, 13 per cent was spent on hospital drugs and implementing NICE guidance and 27 per cent was spent on new services which includes activities like the running of buildings, managing technological advances and reducing waiting times.
Nigel Edwards continued: "Retrospectively, it would have been better to spend the extra investment over a longer period of time. That being true, it is still too early to make the kind of judgements that Civitas is making. This organisation is not independent - it has a strong anti-NHS agenda and its viewpoint clearly reflects this."
ENDS
Notes for editors
The NHS Confederation represents more than 90% of the organisations that make up the NHS throughout the UK. Its members include the majority of NHS trusts, foundation trusts, primary care trusts and health authorities in England; trusts and local health boards in Wales; NHS boards and special boards in Scotland; and health and social service trusts and boards in Northern Ireland.
Contact details
Contact Media Relations Manager Joanna Clason on 020 7074 3306 or 07798 571078 or Media Officer Amy Darlington on 020 7074 3304.
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