A pledge by Boris Johnson to spend an extra £1.8bn on NHS infrastructure and equipment has been dismissed by Labour as an inadequate response to years of under-investment.
The shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, said the NHS needed an extra £6bn to address the backlog of repairs generated by successive cuts to health investment budgets made over many years.
Health experts also claimed the amount proposed by the prime minister was “a drop in the the ocean” compared with what was needed.
Johnson used an article in the Sunday Times to announce the government would spent an extra £1.8bn – on top of the long-term spending increase for the NHS announced last year worth an extra £20bn by 2023 – on “vital new kit” and 20 hospital upgrades.
He did not give details, but, in a separate article in the Sun on Sunday, Matt Hancock, the health secretary, said the money would pay for “new intensive care wards, children’s units, and new mental health facilities – from Cornwall to Newcastle”, as well as essential maintenance.
The announcement, which is due to be fleshed out by No 10 with further details on Monday, shows Johnson is determined to be seen to be honouring the promise on the Vote Leave bus in 2016 to use savings from Brexit to deliver an extra £350m a week for the NHS. This slogan was widely regarded as dishonest because it significantly overstated the UK’s contribution to the EU, and it ignored mainstream economic forecasts that Brexit would result in lower growth, and hence less money for the NHS.
In an interview on Sky, Ashworth said hospitals had been underfunded by the Conservatives for many years.
“It means today that our hospitals, our NHS, is facing a backlog of £6bn-worth of repairs putting patient safety, patient lives at risk every day. It is no wonder the top adviser to Boris Johnson [Dominic Cummings] says Tory MPs don’t care about the NHS,” said Ashworth.
He also claimed Johnson’s announcement was part of the Conservatives’ preparations for an early general election, and he expressed doubt as to whether the money would ever be spent.
“Over the last two years, 145 separate announcements for new beds, new equipment, upgrades to buildings have been announced by ministers totalling £2.5bn, and only £100m of it has ever actually been delivered,” Ashworth said.
Judith Jolly, a Lib Dem health spokeswoman, said Johnson’s announcement could turn out to be meaningless given his willingness to contemplate a no-deal Brexit. “When a no-deal Brexit hits government finances by an eyewatering £90bn, Boris Johnson’s pledge will not be worth the paper it’s written on,” she said.
Ben Gershlick, a senior economist at the Health Foundation, a healthcare charity, said even though Johnson’s announcement was welcome, it was well short of what the NHS needed.
“While the prime minister might be looking forward to cutting the ribbon at a new hospital ward, years of underinvestment in the NHS’s infrastructure means this extra money risks being little more than a drop in the ocean,” he said.
“Many hospitals, GP surgeries, and community and mental health facilities across England are in major disrepair with the maintenance backlog in trusts alone now totalling over £6bn.”
And Nigel Edwards, the chief executive of the Nuffield Trust, a healthcare thinktank, said: “This is a welcome down payment on the staggering £6bn needed to clear the backlog of NHS maintenance but it will only be a fraction of what it would cost to really upgrade 20 hospitals. Nobody should expect shiny new hospitals in their towns any time soon.”
In his Sunday Times article, Johnson also confirms the government is considering changing the rules to the NHS pension scheme “so that doctors no longer face a perverse incentive to reduce hours”.
And he said the government was drawing up plans “to tackle the injustice of social care”. Echoing a line he used repeatedly during the Tory leadership contest, Johnson said families should not have to sell their homes to pay for care.
