Theresa May will give the NHS a ‘significant increase’ in funding to mark its 70th birthday this year, Jeremy Hunt has said.
The Health Secretary said he has been making the case for the service to have extra cash pumped into it ahead of the milestone next month.
He also wants the NHS to be given ten-year budgets so that that the service is put on a long-term financial footing rather than yoyo-ing from feast to famine.
The Prime Minister has faced mounting pressure to find extra money for the NHS ahead of the milestone anniversary next month.
Health chiefs say it must get four per cent yearly increase in funds if the UK wants to keep the same health standards it has.
Chancellor Philip Hammond is understood to be resisting calls to pump that much extra money into the NHS.
Theresa May will give the NHS a ‘significant increase’ in funding to mark its 70th birthday this year, Jeremy Hunt has said (the pair, pictured together on a visit to a Liverpool hospital last year)
In an interview with The Guardian, Mr Hunt said the PM is full square behind the calls for extra money.
He said: ‘She is unbelievably committed. You should not underestimate how committed she is to the NHS. So she is absolutely 100 per cent behind getting this right.
‘I’ve been making the NHS’s case that we need significant and sustainable funding increases to meet the demographic challenges we face, and the prime minister completely appreciates that.
‘Now the economy is back on its feet and growing much more healthily we’re able to have a discussion for the first time about [a] significant increase in resources, and that presents enormous opportunity for the country in terms of the type of NHS that our children and grandchildren will experience.’
Many Tories have called for the PM to ramp up funding for the NHS to show that the Tories are committed to the service.
And many Brexiteers – including Boris Johnson – have urged her to pledge to use any Brexit dividend Britain gets to bolster NHS funds.
Mr Hunt said the extra cash should be spent on tackling chronic understaffing, cope with the ageing population and improve care.
The PM will ditch the austerity-era one per cent annual rises it has received since 2010.
In pressing for an increase in funds the Health Secretary has told the PM a big boost for the NHS will be a vote winner,.
The Health Secretary (pictured with Theresa MAy) said he has been making the case for the service to have extra cash pumped into it ahead of the milestone.
He said: ‘We have to recognise that we have a once-in-a-generation challenge and the choice we have as a country is: are we going to deal with that challenge in an ad hoc way, living hand to mouth year in year out, or are we going to look at this strategically?’
He added: ‘The NHS remains for the vast majority of people, in poll after poll, the most important public service.
Bbut he also warned that there remain major problems iwthin the health service.
And he said that many members of tsaff are still toscared to blow the whistle on bad practice in the NHS.
He said ‘patient safety in the NHS is still deeply flawed’ and warned some staff remained ‘terrified’ to speak out about mistakes in case they get disciplined or sacked.