Chancellor promises funding for extra two million NHS appointments each year

Rachel Reeves has set aside new money in the upcoming budget to help turn around the health service, as ITV News’ Health Correspondent Rebecca Barry reports
The Budget’s tax hikes and borrowing increases may not be enough to undo “14 years of damage” to the NHS, but it will unlock two million extra appointments, the government has said.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to invest billions of pounds into the health service, including £1.5 billion for surgical hubs and scanners and £70 million for radiotherapy machines.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said “it will take time to turn the situation around” but the injection of funding would help meet Labour’s pledge to deliver two million extra NHS appointments a year.
An additional £1.8 billion has been allocated for elective appointments since July and the Treasury indicated “billions of pounds” would be invested in technology to help boost productivity across the health service.
Speaking ahead of the budget, Reeves conceded that she didn’t believe “one budget can undo 14 years of damage, but in this Budget we’re going to provide the resource necessary to deliver on our manifesto commitment to 40,000 additional appointments every single week, to reduce the huge backlog and as well as the increase in the capital budget to take it to its highest level since 2010 to invest in the new scanners and the radiography equipment.”
Talking to reporters at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, south London, she said staff were using equipment purchased under the last Labour government which should have been replaced.
“It hampers their productivity and efficiency and so as well as the money we need to see reform in the health service, but also modern equipment to get the most out of the qualified staff who are using tools that are not appropriate in 2024,” she said.
Rachel Reeves has pledged the biggest capital budget for the NHS since 2010 – but experts say its impact may not be felt until next winter at the earliest
She said she was “putting an end to the neglect and underinvestment” the NHS has seen.
“We will be known as the government that took the NHS from its worst crisis in its history, got it back on its feet again and made it fit for the bright future ahead of it.”
Streeting said the extra money might not prevent avoidable deaths and another winter crisis over the coming months.
“I can’t promise that there won’t be people waiting on trolleys and corridors this winter. There are people in that position already today,” he said.
“We will start planning for next winter, this winter, to make sure we see continued, steady improvement in our NHS.
“And what this Budget will enable us to do is arrest the decline in the NHS and start fixing the foundation so we can not only get the NHS back on its feet, but make sure it’s fit for the future as part of our long-term plan.”
He added: “I can’t pretend that we’re going to be able to wave a Labour magic wand and make all of those problems go away this winter. There will still be real problems this winter, but we’re not going to deny the scale of the problems, and we are already supporting system leaders, particularly in places that tend to have the most challenge at winter, to try and minimise the risk this winter.”
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A Conservative Party spokesman said: “We delivered record funding, overhauled productivity and delivered the first NHS Long Term Workforce Plan to support the health service recover from the pandemic and respond to a growing and ageing population.
“If Labour are serious about ensuring the NHS delivers for patients, they must continue this reform instead of holding yet further consultations. The Health Secretary promised no more money without reform – but where is it?”
Meanwhile, media reports suggested Wednesday’s Budget could also bring a 6% increase in the minimum wage, with a larger increase for younger people.
Changes to the minimum wage would follow the new government’s instruction to the Low Pay Commission, which recommends minimum wage rates, to include the cost of living in its calculations.
A 6% increase would bring the minimum wage for people aged 21 and older to around £12.12 per hour, in line with the commission’s forecast last year.
The minimum wage rose by more than 9% per year in 2023 and 2024 against a background of high inflation in an effort to meet the previous government’s target of raising rates to two-thirds of median earnings, a target which was met this year.
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