The Chancellor will double down on the government’s commitment of continuing to slash NHS waiting times in this week’s Budget - confirming the investment for hundreds of new Neighbourhood Health Centres that will deliver healthcare direct to people’s doorsteps across the country.
At the Budget the Chancellor will set out how the government will take the fair choices to deliver on the country’s priorities to cut NHS waiting times, cut debt and cut the cost of living. 250 new health ‘one stop shops’ will bring the right local combination from GPs, nurses, dentists and pharmacists together under one roof to best meet the needs of the community, starting in the most deprived areas.
The centres will be part of a new Neighbourhood Health Service that will provide end-to-end care and tailored support - improving access to GPs, helping to prevent complications and avoid the frustration of being passed around the system. As the Neighbourhood Health Service moves more outpatient care out of hospitals, these centres will provide space for clinics in communities across the country – bringing an end to the postcode lottery of access to healthcare.
Patients will get treatment minutes from home instead of travelling miles to often hard to reach hospitals, so the NHS is organised around patients’ needs - rather than patients organising their lives around the NHS. Neighbourhood health services will initially focus on improving access to general practice and supporting people with complex needs and long-term conditions - like diabetes and heart failure - in the areas of the highest deprivation.
As the programme grows, it will expand to support other patients and priority cohorts. With construction delivered by a dynamic new approach between the public and private sector, involving both repurposing current estate and new buildings, Neighbourhood Health Centres are a key part of the government’s plan to build an NHS fit for the future, one that fits around people’s lives and is an integral part of their community.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said: "At the Budget I’ll set out how we’ll deliver on the country’s priorities to cut NHS waiting times, cut debt and cut the cost of living.
“We’re driving down waiting lists by bringing healthcare to patients' doorsteps and turbocharging NHS productivity with cutting-edge technology. Our record investment, combined with ruthless efficiency and reform, will deliver the better care and better outcomes our NHS patients deserve.”
At the Budget, Rachel Reeves is also set to turbocharge the drive to get waiting lists down by funnelling millions of pounds into upgrading technology in the health system – improving productivity so nurses and doctors can focus on caring for patients and speeding up how quickly patients are treated. £300m of new capital investment will go into NHS tech, with new digital tools to be rolled out to NHS staff to support their work and improve productivity - by automating administrative tasks and providing swifter access to patient information, as well as ensuring better staff communication and better coordinated care.
This will give nurses, physios, doctors, and other staff more time to care and less time on admin. Productivity for hospital care such as A&E and surgery is up 2.4% this year, meaning patients are being seen and treated more quickly across the health service.
Achieving 2% productivity growth will unlock £17bn savings over the next three years to be reinvested into the NHS in England to improve patient care. Health Minister Karin Smyth said: “Neighbourhood Health Centres fundamentally reimagine how the NHS works - bringing care closer to home and making sure the NHS is organised around patients’ needs, not the other way round.
“The Chancellor is rightly boosting investment in the NHS after we inherited a health service on its knees – with Lord Darzi’s investigation uncovering a £40 billion black hole. But funding will only get us so far. We need to use every measure available to us, which is why we’re leveraging in private investment to construct some of these centres, making the most of all expertise and every tool at our disposal.
“Our new NHS Rebuild approach will give the health service the investment it needs, repurposing and building a new generation of Neighbourhood Health Centres across the country. It will go hand in hand with reform and efficiency – ensuring proper value for money for taxpayers.”
The government has already announced sweeping reforms to the NHS with 18,000 posts cut and NHS England merged back into the Department of Health in order to focus investment at the frontline. The move, which is already underway, will, save over £1bn a year by the end of the Parliament – enough to fund 115,000 extra hip and knee operations.
This government has already made significant progress to get the NHS back on its feet, cutting the waiting list by over 200,000 - the biggest reduction in over 15 years - delivering an extra 5.2 million appointments and providing 135,000 more cancer diagnoses within the 28-day target. This progress is only possible with the funding the NHS has already seen from this Government, which is built on further in this Budget.
