Supporting the NHS

At Prime Minister's Questions today Theresa May set out the ways in which the Conservative government is supporting and improving the NHS

We are giving the NHS the biggest cash boost in its history to ensure it is always there for you and your family. 
  • We are providing an extra £20.5 billion for the NHS so it can continue to deliver world-class care. 
  • The five-year budget settlement will see NHS funding grow by an average of 3.4 per cent a year in real terms, resulting in a cash terms increase of £33.9 billion (Hansard, 7 January 2019, Vol.652 Col.62). 
  • That is more money than Labour said they would spend on the NHS at the last election. At the General Election, Jeremy Corbyn said that he would give an extra £7 billion for the NHS (Labour Press, 7 June 2017).

We are growing our NHS Workforce so our caring staff get the support they need.
  • This year, the number of doctors and nurses in the NHS are at its highest level ever. There are now over 17,000 more doctors than in May 2010, and over 16,300 more nurses on our wards (NHS Digital, NHS Workforce Statistics – January 2019, 25 April 2019) 
  • We are undertaking an unprecedented program to train staff. We are increasing doctor and nurses training places by a quarter, one of the biggest expansions in NHS history, and are training 15,000 GPs between 2015 and 2020 (DHSC, Press Release, 3 October 2017; BBC News, 9 August 2017, link; NHS England, accessed 12 June 2018). 
  • We are developing a workforce implementation plan. Baroness Harding is chairing a rapid programme of work, engaging with staff, employers, professional organisations, trade unions, think-tanks and others to build a workforce implementation plan that puts NHS people at the heart of NHS policy and delivery (Hansard, 7 January 2019, Vol.652 Col.63).

Cancer survival rates are at a record high but we’re working hard to improve them further.
  • Cancer survival rates are at a record high with thousands more people surviving every year.
  • New figures show 10,000 more patients surviving for at least 12 months after diagnosis than five years earlier (NHS England, 23 April 2019; NHS England, NHS Long Term Plan, 7 January 2019). 
  • We are going further, with a new ambition to diagnose three quarters of cancers in the early stages. By 2028, the proportion of cancers diagnosed at stages 1 and 2 will rise from around half now to three-quarters of cancer patients. 
  • This will mean 55,000 more people each year will survive their cancer for at least five years after diagnosis (NHS England, NHS Long Term Plan, 7 January 2019).

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