Jeremy Hunt says calls for more NHS money are a "misjudgment"

Jeremy Hunt has said calls for more money for the NHS are a “misjudgment” less than a year after the health service received a “good settlement” from the government.

The health secretary was reacting to comments from Chris Hopson, the head of NHS Providers, the body that represents hospitals across England, who said on Tuesday that NHS trusts “simply cannot deliver all that they are being asked to deliver on the funding available”.

There have been repeated calls for more money, with charities, thinktanks and royal colleges all saying the NHS requires extra funding.

The chancellor, Philip Hammond, offered no extra cash for the NHS or social care in his autumn statement. He repeated the government’s claim that the NHS will receive an extra £10bn in funding to 2020-21 – a figure that has been challenged by MPs on the Commons health committee and health experts.

MPs have said the government is misleading the public over the “incorrect” figure, saying it is only being achieved through reductions in other areas of health spending outside of NHS England’s budget, such as public health and investment in training.

They said the real increase was £4.5bn while the King’s Fund thinktank has put the figure at £4.2bn.

According to the Health Service Journal (HSJ), Hunt, who is attending the NHS Providers conference in Birmingham, said of Hopson’s speech: “I read Chris’s speech, and I thought it was a very thoughtful speech, and indeed I think he’s a very thoughtful person when it comes to the challenges facing the NHS.

“But I did think it was a misjudgment for NHS Providers, less than a year after they had a settlement for the NHS which they themselves described as a good settlement, to say that there isn’t enough money.

“And the reason is that when we’re negotiating with the Treasury for extra support for the NHS, if less than a year ago you’ve got the biggest settlement that any government department got, in a period when most government departments have seen their budget cut, and less than 12 months later you’re saying, ‘there isn’t enough money, please sir can I have some more’, then you devalue the currency.

“What you do is you risk the NHS not being at the table in these discussions going forward because people will say, ‘whatever we do it’s not enough’.”

Jeremy Hunt says calls for more NHS money are a "misjudgment"