The National Audit Office has highlighted a number of risks to the delivery of the new NHS long-term plan including uncertainty over key budgets and staff shortages.
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NHS England and NHS Improvement have unveiled an overhaul of the provider sustainability fund (PSF) and given more details of the new financial recovery fund in planning guidance for 2019/20.
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Clinical commissioning groups will receive a minimum cash uplift of 4.4% in 2019/20 and at least 17% over the next five years under allocations announced by NHS England.
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The new long-term plan for the NHS in England sets out a ‘practical, costed, phased route map’ for the improvement of care quality and outcomes, according to NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens.
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A new financial recovery fund (FRF), which will support systems’ and organisations’ efforts to make services sustainable, is expected to ensure no trust has a deficit by 2023/24, the NHS long-term plan said.
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Integrated care systems (ICSs) will play a central role in delivering the NHS long-term plan and will cover the whole of England by April 2021.
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NHS organisations and think-tanks broadly welcomed the NHS long-term plan, but cast some doubts on the level of funding needed to implement an ambitious plan compared with the £20.5bn increase in the five-year financial settlement. They also raised questions on areas such as workforce and the potential impact of Brexit, together with concerns over the continued lack of plans for the future of social care.
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NHS England and NHS Improvement have set out a single operational planning process for commissioners and providers for 2019/20.
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The Department of Health and Social Care is failing to take account of the effects of local deficits on patient care, according to MPs.
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Clinical commissioning groups look likely to cover increasingly larger populations based around sustainability and transformation partnership (STP) footprints, according to a report by the National Audit Office.
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Publications
A summary of NHS operational planning and contracting guidance 2019/20
11 January 2019
Briefing
A summary of The NHS long term plan
09 January 2019
Briefing