Labour's reheated story won't hide their failure

Labour’s reheated story won’t hide their failure to commit the £8 billion the NHS needs Responding to Labour’s claims about NHS trust finances, a Conservative spokesman said NHS providers say hospital deficits have been caused partly by the decision to hire more staff to avoid a repeat of Mid Staffs and other hospital tragedies that happened under the last Labour government. Yet today, for the second election in a row, Labour is refusing to give the NHS the budget it is asking for unlike the Conservatives who have committed to the full £8 billion.

Without that support Labour are once again risking a repeat of the very tragedies that scarred the NHS when they were last in charge.Labour planned to cut health spending between 2010 and 2015.  Alastair Darling planned to cut NHS spending; according to the King’s Fund, his 2009 pre-budget report would have cut the NHS budget by £5.25 billion. Labour only promised to protect frontline spending, which they defined as the 95 per cent of spending that supports patient care, this would have left the remaining 5 per cent to be cut.

Health Secretary Andy Burnham said that tough efficiency savings would allow his department to continue to increase real terms resources available for patient care year by year. The cabinet minister making the largest trim to his budget was the health secretary, Andy Burnham, who offered up more than a third of the total savings, cutting £4.35billions. He said his department could save £1.5billion by driving down the cost of procurement, £100m from IT programmes, £60m from reducing energy consumption and £555m by reducing staff sickness and absence.

The NHS needs £8 billion to keep doing what it is doing by 2020.  The NHS Five Year Forward View says. NHS England and independent analysts have previously calculated that a combination of growing demand if met by no further annual efficiencies and flat real terms funding would produce a mismatch between resources and patient needs of nearly £30 billion a year by 2020/21. The NHS can make £22 billion in efficiency savings meaning £8 billion extra funding is required. Conservatives have committed to give the NHS the £8 billion it need Because of our long-term economic plan, we are able to commit to increasing NHS spending in England in real terms by a minimum of £8 billion over the next five years. Labour refuse to commit the £8 billion needed. Asked if Labour was committed or not committed to spending that money £8 billion Ed Balls said, I am not going to come along and say to you on this programme I will promise £8bn of spending for the NHS. Andy Burnham was asked if he would commit the required £8 billion, he said: ‘I’m not in the business of making false promises or giving cheques to the NHS that will bounce a few days after the election