That Extra NHS Money

Where has all the extra billions of pounds given to the NHS actually gone ?

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Well amazingly according to the Public Accounts Committee, no one really knows. The accounting system is too, well unfit for purpose.

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The King's Fund an independendent health think tank, has some estimates though:

Less than a third of the extra money spent on the NHS is actually going directly to improve health care and front-line services. Of the £19 billion spent by the Government on hospital and community health since 2003, £6.6 billion had gone on extra pay for clinical staff.

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A further £2.2 billion went on the rising cost of drugs; £1.6 billion went on hiring more doctors to meet new EU employment laws on working hours; £1.1 billion went on new buildings and equipment; £1 billion went on equipment and £600 million on negligence law suits.

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This left only £5.9 billion to spend on improving performance such as reducing waiting lists, the extension of day surgery and more nurses and consultants.

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The sadness of all of this is that if the present Government had left GP fundholding in place (broadly similar to the system they are now 'introducing'), something which of course they couldn't as it had been brought in by the Tories (a sysyem that if one remembers we were told '' needed to get better''), we'd have got a much better results for our money.