NHS gets £5.9bn funding boost in autumn budget to tackle waiting lists in England

The NHS in England will get a £5.9bn (€7bn; $8.1bn) funding boost in the autumn budget to tackle record high waiting lists, the government has announced.1

The 2021 budget states that £2.3bn will be used to increase diagnostic capacity, including 100 community diagnostic centres, while £2.1bn will support the “innovative use of digital technology.”

The NHS will not only be expected to clear the backlog but will also provide around 30% more elective activity by 2024-25 than before the pandemic, the document said. This is despite the Health Foundation estimating that it would cost as much as £16.8bn from now to 2024-25 just to enable the NHS to clear the backlog of people waiting for routine elective care, return to the 18 week waiting time target, and treat millions of patients who had been expected to receive care during the pandemic but did not.2

The number of patients waiting for routine operations and treatments, such as hip replacements and eye cataract surgery, is set to exceed 13 …