NHS gets 4% more funding a year until 2011 but spend it wisely, says BMA

doi:10.1136/bmj.39367.545220.DB

BMJ 2007;335:793 (20 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.39367.545220.DB

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NHS gets 4% more funding a year until 2011—but spend it wisely, says BMA

Helen Mooney

London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The NHS in England and Wales has been given a 4% a year fundingrise for the next three years, with an overall budget rise from£90bn this year to £110bn in 2010.

Announcing the comprehensive spending review, the chancellor,Alistair Darling, said that the cash would fund 20 new hospitals,140 walk-in centres open seven days a week, and 100 new GP practices.

However, the funding is much less than the 7.2% that the NHShas had each year since 2002 and below the 4.4% recommendedby Derek Wanless in his review of the future of the NHS publishedin September (BMJ 2007;335:529, doi: 10.1136/bmj.39336.545336.80).But it is more than the 3% that many NHS staff had been expecting.

Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the BMA, said it was vital fundswere not squandered on "costly and poor value" deals with theprivate sector, where he said "profits . . . [Full text of this article]

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