News / NHS England: funding gap set to grow

The health service will face a funding gap that could grow to £30bn between 2013/14 and 2020/21, NHS England has said.

Its paper, The NHS belongs to the people: a call for action, sets out the challenges facing the service, including an ageing population with more complex conditions, rising expectations and increasing costs while funding remains flat.

Traditional productivity improvements would not plug the gap between funding and spending requirements, it said. It called for a public debate on how the service should approach the challenge.

NHS England analysis suggested the overall efficiency challenge could be as high as 5% to 6% in 2015/16 – in the current financial year it is 4%.

Measures such as better procurement, reduced lengths of stay in hospital and improved  performance management had a role to play in keeping the NHS affordable, but were already being used in the current efficiency drive. It would be difficult to achieve further savings in these areas without damaging quality or safety.

NHS England chief executive Sir David Nicholson said: ‘If we continue with the current model of care and expected funding levels, we could have a funding gap of £30bn between 2013/14 and 2020/21, which will continue to grow and grow quickly if action isn’t taken.

‘This cannot be solved from the public purse, but by freeing up NHS services and staff from old-style practices and buildings.’