GUEST POST: Straight talking on NHS funding
Posted on 18. May, 2010 by neilcrump in Health, Industry
We asked Jamie Holyer, MD of our public affairs partner Advocate, to assess the first few days of government and forecast what this means for medicine funding. Here is what he had to say…
After what has been one of the most interesting few weeks in Westminster that anyone can remember the stark reality of the restricted wriggle room the new coalition government has is just starting to kick in. It was therefore no surprise that new Ministers put the blame fairly and squarely on the Labour Party who they claimed spent prolifically in the pursuit of political capital at the expense of the economy and general wellbeing of UK plc.
There is one simple conclusion for this for industry – unless a disease area or allied new therapy is a priority for Ministers then there will inevitably be a question mark over whether it will be funded or not.
I am not saying that all the decisions that Labour Ministers made was right but someone should point out to the new government that there was a global recession on at the time and Treasury had to borrow immense amounts of money to bail out the banks or UK plc would really have gone bankrupt.
Whoever you blame the sound of the pips squeaking in Whitehall will become increasingly audible as the year goes until the Comprehensive Spending Review in November when the Chancellor will lay out his plans for the NHS over the three year period to 2014. True the Conservatives have said that they will increase NHS spending but independent health economists commissioned by the government estimate that NHS spending will have to rise by at least 4% in real terms for current service levels to remain constant. On current estimations the coalition will be lucky to find 1%.
All of which means that the pressure will be well and truly on at both a mirco and macro level and there will be winners and losers. The ideological clash between a state funded NHS and commercial corporations will inevitably mean that medicines will be targeted despite only accounting for 11% of the total NHS budget. The commitment the Conservatives made in opposition to fire the gun on another review of the PPRS makes it likely that this debate will start sooner rather later.
Reach Advocate MD Jamie Holyer on +44 (0) 20 7233 3558 or jamie@advocate-consulting.co.uk.
