NHS budgets ‘can only stretch so far’, warns health chief

NHS budgets can only stretch so far as the cost-of-living crisis is expected drive pressure on services, the health service chief has warned.

Amanda Pritchard, chief executive for the NHS, said at the NHS ConfedExpo conference in Liverpool “we have absorbed the current inflation spike, but budgets can only ever stretch so far.”

The NHS chief also suggested the cost of living crisis is likely to lead to added pressure on the NHS and criticised the “appalling” treatment of some sickle cell and thalassaemia patients.

Talking about pressures in emergency care the NHS England chief said the situation is as “as challenging as any winter before the pandemic.”

She added: "April was the busiest ever for ambulance services in terms of calls and Category 1 incidents, and the second busiest for Accident and Emergency departments. "But demand isn’t the whole story. The unacceptable rise in 12-hour waits for admission from A&E underlines that the issue is flow.

"You can trace the line from delayed discharges, to A&E crowding, all the way through to slower ambulance response times.”

"It’s difficult to see social care capacity being significantly expanded ahead of winter, so the NHS must do everything in its power to tackle this."

The NHS is currently working on an emergency care strategy which will be published in the autumn, according to Ms Pritchard.

The NHS chief also suggested cost of living crisis is likely to lead to extra pressure in the health service.

She said: "The post-pandemic climate is bringing further challenges still. The rising cost of living will be felt most by those who are already living with or vulnerable to poorer physical or mental health.

"Cold homes, debt and financial insecurity, barriers to accessing care... experience tells us that these factors and more will show up through NHS services over the coming months."

Ms Pritchard criticised the "appalling" treatment of some sickle cell and thalassaemia patients after one asked her "If I was white, would I be treated like this?"

She said: "I heard really powerful stories from patients living with sickle cell disease about their experience of the wider health service, how they have been treated appallingly when they have needed to go to A&E so much so that they told me they have to think twice and often delay coming forward for care when they need it.

"And this brings us back around to tackling health inequalities.”

During her speech Ms Pritchard announced the NHS is rolling out two new drugs to tackle superbugs.

The drugs are the first to be developed through a subscription-style scheme with pharmaceutical firms to create drugs to tackle infections which have evolved so much that current medicines have been rendered ineffective.

Ms Pritchard said: "The NHS is using its purchasing clout and unique infrastructure to help tackle the global challenge of antimicrobial.”