The Government insisted on Tuesday it has enough doctors and nurses to support its new plan to tackle record NHS waiting lists in the coming winter.
As junior doctors ended their latest four-day strike, the health department announced it plans to use £250 million from existing budgets to fund an extra 900 beds across 30 NHS trusts in England.
But the plan will only kick in from January, while unions, opposition parties and NHS experts noted that staff shortfalls are already hampering patient care.
Health Minister Will Quince said the money was coming from an existing NHS capital budget of £1 billion announced by the government in January “to improve urgent and emergency care and our resilience ahead of this winter”.
“Staffing is a key component of this plan,” he told GB News. “The additional staffing numbers will come from that £1 billion budget, so the additional revenue funding, which will flow through NHS England through to those 30 trusts.
“We have of course over the last the past year seen an additional 6,000 doctors and 15,000 nurses, but each of those trusts that have committed to build those 900 additional beds within their trust, have assured us and NHS England that they will be able to staff them with the funding supplied.”
The Prime Minister has made cutting hospital waiting lists — which hit a record 7.57 million people in England alone in June — one of his key priorities.
But Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: “Rishi Sunak should apologise for his party’s vandalism of the NHS. Patients deserve better.”
The Government’s latest announcement amounted to “a sticking plaster, which comes nowhere near the 12,000 beds the Conservatives have cut over the last 13 years”, he said.
The two-year blueprint to create extra hospital beds – backed by the £1 billion – aims to increase NHS capacity with 5,000 new beds, improve patient experience and reduce waiting times.
Mr Sunak said: “Cutting waiting lists is one of my top five priorities, so this year the Government has started planning for winter earlier than ever before and the public can be reassured we are backing the NHS with the resources it needs.
“These 900 new beds will mean more people can be treated quickly, speeding up flow through hospitals and reducing frustratingly long waits for treatment.”
Amanda Pritchard, NHS England chief executive, said: “Winter is always a busy time for the NHS and so it is right that we put robust plans in place as early as possible to boost capacity and help frontline staff to prepare for additional pressure.”
Miriam Deakin, director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers, welcomed the plan but added: “However, this is just one piece of a much larger puzzle. Not only will these new beds need to be staffed, but underlying issues including workforce shortages, a lack of investment in capital and the desperate need for social care reform will ultimately hinder progress unless also addressed.
“Similarly, other parts of the health system, including mental health and community services, need adequate investment in physical capacity to meet high demand.
“As winter is the busiest time of the year for urgent and emergency care, trust leaders will be very concerned that this extra capacity is only expected to be in place by January. For the best results, trusts would need these new beds before winter begins.”
