Theresa May must use her first Budget to provide the NHS & social care sector the funding it desperately needs – Jonathan Ashworth

“Theresa
May must use her first Budget as Prime Minister to provide the NHS and social
care sector with the funding desperately needed to provide the very best
quality of care. That’s the test on the NHS that her budget must meet this
week.

“Theresa
May used to make a virtue of her rows with the police and said she had no
sympathy with those managing her budget cuts but she can’t take the same
unsympathetic, derisive approach to NHS funding. The test of her first Budget
this week therefore is whether she will signal a different approach to the NHS.

“At
the very least the Government should bring forward £2 billion of emergency
funding for social care and make clear as soon as possible how this money is
going to be used to increase capacity and take some of the pressure off NHS
hospitals, so that patients and their families never have to go through a
winter like this again.”