New report calls for financial reform to underpin the new 10 Year Health Plan The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has published a report on NHS financial sustainability, which claims senior DHSC and NHSE officials are “unambitious” about NHS reform and calls for the development of the 10 Year Health plan to ensure enough funding is allocated to future-proofing the NHS. In particular, it recommends that:
- NHSE ensures that more funding, year on year, is spent in the community, in line with its own ambitions
- A definition should be reached for what counts as prevention spending; that officials set out the funding increases required to achieve it; and for local systems to be given the required flexibility and autonomy to direct funds to the right areas
- Plans should be made to reduce Trust reliance on paper within 18 months, and a specific deadline to end the use of fax machines.
NHSE Chief Executive Amanda Pritchard also gave evidence about future plans for the NHS as part of a Health and Social Care select committee hearing this week, along with NHSE Chief Financial Officer Julian Kelly and NHSE Chief Nurse Duncan Burton. In it she flagged NHSE planning guidance published this week, which gives more detail about some of the issues raised in the PAC report.
Since the publication of the PAC report, NHSE has also published a statement detailing what it believes are various “inaccuracies” within the report, and showcasing progress made so far on NHS reform.
Date: 3 February