Health and care sector latest developments
Spring Statement 2026
Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered her Spring Statement today. In today’s Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) estimates, the Chancellor said average growth across the forecast period was largely unchanged, and the OBR had adjusted the profile of GDP so that it grew slower in 2026 and faster in 2027 and 2028.
The OBR now forecasts that GDP growth will be 1.1 per cent this year, before rising to 1.6 per cent in each of 2027 and 2028, and 1.5 per cent in 2029 and 2030. Furthermore, GDP per capita will rise by 5.6 per cent over the course of this parliament.
Furthermore, unemployment is set to peak later this year and fall in every year of the forecast period, ending the forecast period at 4.1 per cent, lower than what it was at the start of the parliament.
In relation to the fiscal rules, the OBR had found that the UK was set to reduce borrowing by nearly £18 billion compared to the autumn, and it was set to borrow less than the G7 average.
Public sector borrowing is now set to fall from 4.3 per cent this year to 3.6 per cent next year, then to 2.9 per cent, 2.5 per cent, and to 1.9 per cent in 2029/30.
Headroom against the stability rule in 2029/30 has increased from £21.7 billion to £23.6 billion, even after the SEND reforms introduced last week, with headroom against the investment rule at £27.1 billion.
Responding to the Chancellor’s Spring Statement, Dr Layla McCay of the NHS Confederation and NHS Providers said:
“We agree wholeheartedly with the Chancellor’s priority to stabilise public finances. However, the financial context for the NHS has changed significantly since the government’s Autumn Budget. A higher than expected pay award for NHS staff, three rounds of resident doctors’ strikes, forthcoming increases to medicines spending and potential inflationary pressures from conflicts overseas will take their toll on an already stretched budget.
“This raises very difficult questions about how services will meet rising demand while pursuing the government's ambitions for long-term transformation.
“NHS organisations are coming under severe financial pressure, with leaders warning of cuts to services and staffing levels. Already several integrated care boards expect to end this financial year in deficit despite major efficiency savings and productivity gains. The Office for Budget Responsibility specifically highlights the risk of further industrial action across the NHS as a ‘significant risk’ to departmental spending plans.
“Recent improvements in elective and cancer care show what targeted investment can achieve. Growing financial pressures, without fresh government commitments, are putting this momentum at risk.”
Sharon Hodgson appointed as health minister
Sharon Hodgson MP has been appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department of Health and Social Care.
Hodgson previously served as shadow minister for public health under Jeremy Corbyn.
She will likely inherit Ashley Dalton's public health and prevention portfolio, but this is yet to be officially confirmed.
Number of patients in private chemotherapy rises
Record numbers of cancer patients are turning to private hospitals for chemotherapy, with over 78,000 admissions in the year to September 2025, as NHS waiting times continue to miss national targets.
As reported by The Telegraph, many patients are reportedly using savings, insurance, or even remortgaging homes to cover treatment costs that can reach £40,000, making chemotherapy the top reason for private hospital admissions, ahead of cataract surgery.
Patient groups say long delays since the pandemic have left people feeling like they have little choice, while the government insists reforms and the new Cancer Plan will reduce waiting times and expand NHS treatment.
Trust calls in KPMG as £30 million gap opens
A trust with major financial and performance problems has called in a large accountancy and consultancy firm to carry out a wide-ranging review.
York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust is facing a £28.5 million deficit for this financial year after its planned breakeven position was abandoned. Its board papers reveal a £20 million gap in its cost improvement plan and the loss of deficit support funding for the final quarter of the financial year.
NHS England has previously said that rural and coastal trusts with deep and long-standing problems may be a focus for its new national performance improvement programme.
York and Scarborough’s board papers reveal that it has recently appointed KPMG to carry out an independent financial diagnostic and governance review.
Weight-loss drugs could limit heart attack complications
A UK study has found that weight-loss drugs could prevent heart attack complications.
The new research, reported in The Guardian, found that the drugs can reduce the risk of tissue damage that results after someone suffers a heart attack.
Dr Svetlana Mastitskaya, who led the study, suggested that heart attack patients could be given the drugs "on the way to the hospital and/or during surgical reopening of the occluded artery", but added that clinical trials will be needed first.
