I comment on lack of funding granted by Government to Norfolk hospitals

5th March, 2019

Evening News article: "Norfolk's NHS given just tiny fraction of what was asked for from the government to build, fix and extend hospitals"

I was asked to comment on this story about how Norfolk and Waveney’s NHS has been snubbed in almost every single bid for capital funding made to the government over the last two years. Here’s what I said in full.

“What we’re seeing here is the local consequences of the Tories’ smoke and mirrors funding of our NHS. For years the Tories have been robbing Peter to pay Paul. Since 2014, the Tories have siphoned £4.3bn from the NHS in England’s capital budget and used it to help pay for day-to-day running costs.

It’s also grimly ironic that it is local STP bosses who are up in arms about this. STPs are the Tory smoke screen for slashing health spending and hoping the trail doesn’t lead back to Downing Street. Yes, of course, it’s a slap in the face for NHS users to get only a miserly £600k of capital funding. But I don’t see STP chiefs protesting the £300 million of ‘savings’ this government is inflicting on our local NHS through those self-same STPs.”

Read the article in full HERE.