Tackle shortfall in NHS funding, healthcare leaders tell health secretary

Healthcare leaders have urged the returning health secretary for England, Jeremy Hunt, to urgently prioritise investment in the NHS to safeguard its future.

Prime Minister David Cameron this week reappointed Hunt to his cabinet after the Conservative Party’s victory in last week’s UK general election, with Hunt to continue in the role he has held since replacing Andrew Lansley in September 2012.

Cameron made two new appointments to the Department of Health, with Ben Gummer replacing Dan Poulter as undersecretary of state for health and Alistair Burt replacing the departing Liberal Democrat minister for care and support, Norman Lamb.

As The BMJ went to press the public health minister, Jane Ellison, minister for health quality, Lord Howe, and life sciences …