Today sees the release of the 2024 Budget – the Labour government’s first since being elected in July. With health and the state of the NHS so prominent in public perception, the funding laid out today will be key for understanding how the government seeks to overcome the challenges facing the NHS – as highlighted in the recent Darzi review – and meet its manifesto commitments.
Our latest snapshot provides a summary key factors impacting the health sector:
The purpose of this snapshot is to outline the key announcements from today’s Budget for the NHS and for the Life Sciences industry.
The NHS has faced a very challenging period, and the Health Secretary has described it as “broken”. The Labour government ran for office with a pledge to deliver 2 million extra appointments per year to deliver the 18-week elective waiting target and has described three big shifts for the NHS; to move from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention.
It announced a further £22.6bn in day-to-day health budget and £3.1bn capital budget for the NHS – the largest increase since 2010 – as well as investments in research and innovation, and important changes for wider determinants of health. Also mentioned in the Get Britain Working white paper, a government programme aimed at addressing root causes of economic inactivity including ill-health, more detail on which will be given in Round 2 of the government spending review.
Find out more and see the Autumn Budget in full here.