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NHS finances: Chancellor of the Exchequer replies to Chair

15 November 2016

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The Health Committee Chair, Dr Sarah Wollaston, wrote to the Chancellor of the Exchequer expressing concern about the finances of the NHS. The letter, which has also been signed by other Committee members, follows the oral evidence sessions on Department of Health and NHS finances held by the Committee on 11 and 18 October. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has replied and the letter is now published on the Committee's website.

The evidence sessions were the Committee's response to reports by the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Department of Health, NHS England and NHS Consolidated Foundation Trust accounts for 2015–16, and the receipt by the Committee of a letter from NHS Providers, the membership organisation for NHS acute, ambulance, community and mental health services that treat patients and service users in the NHS, on NHS funding.

Questions to the Chancellor

The letter asks three questions of the Chancellor ahead of the Autumn Statement:

  • Will the Government support the long-term sustainability of the NHS by making available the further capital resources required for the success of the Sustainability and Transformation Plan process?
  • Will the Government address the crisis in social care provision which is impacting so severely both on vulnerable people who require care, and on NHS services for the wider population?
  • Will the Government look again at the NHS funding settlement for the middle years of the Spending Review, and commit to ensuring that the health service has the resources which it needs to meet the rising demands upon it?

The letter expresses the hope that the Chancellor will meet the Chair of the Committee to discuss the Government's response to the letter before the Autumn Statement is made.

Further information

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