Autumn Budget 2024: What does it mean for the NHS?

Today, the Labour government unveiled its first Autumn Budget in 14 years, delivered by Rachel Reeves, the first female Chancellor. Over the past months, we've been campaigning alongside NHS patients across the country for a substantial increase in NHS funding. While we're pleased that the government has felt the pressure and committed to more investment, this financial plan still doesn't go far enough to address the urgent challenges facing our health service.

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The gap between the government’s rhetoric on the NHS — where they acknowledge the depth of the problems patients face —and the pledges they are making to fix this mess has been narrowed by this budget, but not enough.

The Chancellor announced: a £22.6 billion increase in day-to-day spending for the NHS over the next two years and £3.1 billion increase in the capital budget over the same period. While these figures may seem significant, the budget fails to provide the substantial, predictable, year-on-year above-inflation increases over the coming five years that the NHS desperately needs. These figures fall far short of what independent analysts have stated is necessary to restore the NHS and they're also less than the increased investment Labour made the last time they took office in the late '90s when they made similar promises to save the NHS. Moreover, this investment will still see the UK's healthcare spending lag behind countries like France and Germany.

Furthermore, much of this increased investment in the NHS will leave our health system - instead of funding improved care, it will be going out the door and into the pockets of profit making healthcare corporations as the government presides over an acceleration of the privatisation of our health service. This concern is only intensified by Health Secretary Wes Streeting's track record with reports that have highlighted that more than 60% of the donations he has received come from individuals and companies linked to private healthcare since he entered Parliament.

The truth is that thousands more people are dying avoidable deaths every year, and millions more are suffering on waiting lists because of the austerity and fragmentation imposed on our health system over the last decade and a half. Wes Streeting has even admitted that patients will still be waiting on trolleys this winter, acknowledging that the crisis in emergency care won't be resolved quickly. So, whilst this budget will mean NHS staff have some of the resources they need to begin the task of fixing this mess, but without further increased investment, the government will still be leaving patients languishing without the NHS care they need and deserve. 

We've been campaigning tirelessly for a significant increase in the NHS budget. While this budget is a step in the right direction, it doesn’t go far enough to address the crisis. The government's actions must match its rhetoric. We want a publicly run, well-equipped, and well-staffed health service and we’ll keep organising patients to campaign until we win the changes in government policy that will deliver it.