NHS Confederation responds to the Autumn Budget

Responding to the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget, Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said:

"NHS leaders across the UK understand the pressure on public finances and that's why they are reforming local services to deliver higher quality and more efficient care. 

"To go further, they need more capital investment to create new facilities and fix the NHS' crumbling estate. That's why the decision the Chancellor has made in the Budget to allow private capital to be used to build new neighbourhood health centres in the English NHS is so important. Using private capital to build new facilities not only increases overall investment in the NHS but frees up public funding to tackle the £16 billion estates maintenance backlog.

"This is a first step to bringing vital investment into an NHS that has been starved of capital funding for more than a decade. NHS leaders will hope further private capital can be leveraged to create new and upgraded facilities in hospitals and mental health services. 

"Much of the UK government rhetoric today is focused on how the Budget is prioritising the NHS over other areas. NHS leaders don't take this for granted, but the reality is that the NHS budget in England is under significant pressure from rising demand for care, ongoing strike action and the threat of higher drug prices as highlighted by the Office for Budget Responsibility. In particular, local services cannot continue to absorb the costs of ongoing strike action by the BMA without consequences to patient care."