Chancellor sets out new funding for extra NHS appointments

The government has announced more details of what is in this week’s Budget for the NHS – including £1.57bn for new surgical hubs, scanners and radiotherapy machines.

The funding is part of the government’s overall pledge to increase the number of NHS hospital appointments and procedures in England by 40,000 per week.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the Budget will help to “start fixing the foundation” of the NHS – but warned it “will take time to turn the situation around”.

Health experts have welcomed the new funding but cautioned there were many unanswered questions about future policy with the government’s 10-year NHS plan not published until next spring.

Full details of the government’s funding plans will come in Wednesday’s Budget.

Streeting has repeatedly said “the NHS is broken” since taking on the role in the summer.

The latest waiting time figures for the NHS in England show the backlog for hospital care is 7.64 million. Before the pandemic, it was just over four million.

In August, more than 280,000 people had been waiting for an operation, scan or appointment for more than a year.

And last month, a damning report warned that the NHS in England was in a “critical condition”, falling well short of its key targets for cancer, emergency (A&E) and hospital treatment.