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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Rowena Mason, Denis Campbell and Heather Stewart

NHS cuts to cover Covid costs may hit patient care, Labour warns

Ambulances outside a hospital
The NHS has a 6.1 million-strong backlog of patients awaiting hospital treatment. Photograph: Mark Thomas/Rex/Shutterstock

Patient care may suffer as a result of cuts to the NHS budget to fund the continuing costs of Covid, NHS leaders and Labour have said, after Sajid Javid refused to say where the axe would fall.

The Department of Health and Social Care is trying to make savings from its budget to fund free lateral flow tests for elderly people, Covid surveillance studies and genomic sequencing, after the Treasury refused its request for £5bn in extra funding.

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