“The longest, and most damaging budget squeeze in its history” – NHS experts pen open letter to party leaders

In an open-letter in the Independent, high-profile medical figures have said that as a result of funding cuts “the NHS and our social care services are at breaking point” and, they say, “things cannot go on like this.”

Addressing the letter to all three main party leaders, the signatories – who include senior members from the British Medical Association, the Alzheimer’s Society, the Teenage Cancer Trust, the Royal National Institute of Blind People and the Royal College of midwives – have said that in recent years “historic annual increases in the health budget, designed to keep pace with a growing and ageing population, have been severely reduced – meaning that our NHS has just been through the longest, and most damaging budget squeeze in its history.”

The results of such underfunding are manifold; experts explain that “despite the best efforts of nurses, doctors and other staff, patients have not been insulated from these cuts” and this has lead many staff to feel “undervalued and demoralised when all they want is to be able to care for patients.”

Those who have put their name to  the letter call on the three party leaders to create a “comprehensive, fully costed, long-term spending plan…provided according to need not ability to pay” – and they warn that another “top-down reorganisation” is not “in the best interests of patients.”

The Labour leadership have repeatedly stressed that the NHS is one of the key areas on which they will be fighting the next general election. This was proven by Ed Miliband’s leader’s speech at this year’s Labour Party Conference in which he pledged another £2.5bn in NHS funding a year.

However, today it’s emerged that this rise in funding would not be available until 2017-2018. That’s because a next Labour government would need to use the first year of Parliament to raise these additional funds – which will come from a mansion tax, a windfall tax on tobacco firms and cracking down on tax avoidance.

Although it is worth noting that none of the other parties have backed Labour’s funding pledge, it’s clear the Labour leadership  need to clarify their plans – particularly when health experts are crying out for more immediate NHS funding.