30 October 2024

College welcomes NHS England funding increase in Budget

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a £22.6bn increase in the day-to-day health budget, and a £3.1bn increase in the capital budget – the largest increase in spending outside of COVID-19 since 2010.

The College has welcomed the increase in funding promised for NHS England, outlined in today’s Budget – the first for the new Westminster government – and has called for essential funding to improve eye care from this pot.

The Chancellor Rachel Reeves has confirmed that the NHS will receive the funding needed to deliver an extra 40,000 elective appointments per week, to contribute to the government’s promise of reduce waiting times. She announced a £22.6bn increase in the day-to-day health budget, and a £3.1bn increase in the capital budget – the largest increase in spending outside of COVID-19 since 2010.

This extra funding has been committed in the short term to address immediate challenges in the health service, and to also lay the foundations for longer-term reforms expected when the government publishes its 10-year plan for the NHS in Spring 2025. The Minister for Care, Stephen Kinnock MP, said the Budget is aimed at “stabilisation,” with a more impactful, long-term investment plan anticipated in the second phase of the spending review.

There are over 611,000 people on NHS waiting lists to begin treatment for ophthalmology in England, making ophthalmology one of the largest contributors to the NHS backlog - and this number is only set to grow with an ageing population. The extra money promised today is a welcome step forward to help reduce waiting lists, but it’s essential that funding is directed towards primary eye care services to help tackle the ophthalmology backlog by moving more care from hospitals into the community. This will be a key message that the College will present to government as we feed into its 10 Year Health Plan for NHS England.

NHS 10-year plan for England

The government’s 10 Year Health Plan is the biggest national conversation about the future of NHS England since its inception; with members of the public, as well as NHS staff and organisations invited to share their experiences, views and ideas via the Change NHS online platform. The government wants to focus on the three big shifts recommended in response to the Darzi review: from hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention. 

The College will be calling on government to support and strengthen eye care services by unleashing the potential of optometry to cut NHS waiting times and improve patient outcomes by:

  • enabling optometrists to provide more care to patients closer to home
  • prioritising a better-connected NHS and unlocking the potential of new technologies
  • supporting the optometry workforce to develop specialised skills so that they can provide more enhanced and shared services

We will shortly be asking for members’ views to inform our response - including our Policy Advisory Panel - and will be supporting members to share their views through local and national channels.

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