Exclusive: NHS investment set to be axed
Updated on 03 February 2010
In an exclusive report for Channel 4 News FactCheck, Cathy Newman finds that investment in the NHS is set to be axed despite Alistair Darling's promise to increase hospital spending.
Channel 4 News FactCheck has learned that the Department of Health plans to cut expenditure on new hospitals and crucial equipment - known as capital spending - by 22 per cent in the next financial year.
The chancellor pledged in his pre-budget report in December that spending on hospitals, schools and policing would increase in 2010/11.
But a document drawn up by the Department of Health reveals that total capital spending will be £1.4bn less in 2010/11 - a real-terms cut of almost 22 per cent. That's in part because contribution from private finance is expected to almost halve from just over £1 billion to just £580m.
The Tories tonight accused Labour of dishonesty over the financial pressures facing the health service, and warned that projects across the country - including in Liverpool, Bristol and Stanmore - were under threat.
Andrew Lansley, shadow health secretary, told the programme: "Gordon Brown keeps saying he is going to increase spending and disguising the fact that they are planning cuts.
"And in the NHS I'm afraid what this says is that the Labour government is actually planning a major cut in capital spending in the NHS next year, at the point where they're saying oh it's about a stimulus, we've got to keep on spending but actually they are planning the cuts."
Channel 4 News FactCheck has established that although the overall NHS budget is going up - mainly because everyday or current spending on things like staff wages and medicines is rising - to make ends meet the NHS will have to axe capital projects like hospital rebuilding or refurbishments and even crucial kit like X-ray machines.
The Department of Health said in a statement tonight: "The NHS budget is in a strong position after a decade of record investment."
The NHS budget has tripled since Labour came to power in 1997.
Public sector spending looks set to dominate the election campaign. But even in supposedly protected areas like the NHS, both main parties are privately planning cuts to critical investment.
David Cameron's promised real-terms increases for the NHS throughout the next parliament. But the Tories said tonight they wouldn't be reversing Labour's capital spending cuts.
But health think tank the King's Fund says the public may be more tolerant of putting new hospitals on hold if existing services aren't jeopardised.
John Appleby, chief economist on health policy at the fund, said: "The cut in capital spending from this April is very large indeed. The NHS, just like any public service, is facing some very great difficulties with its finances...
"It's got to make the best use of resources as it can. One of the ways of doing that and also in protecting the frontline, protecting the patient is to look at spending as far away from patients as possible and that's what this is all about. It's about cutting some investment."
