The 2018 Autumn Budget and How it Affects General Practice

The autumn budget has been announced and obviously, NHS spending was in the spotlight. In this AppLocum article, we will touch upon the budget and how it will affect the NHS and general practice.

What we know

What we know is this; the NHS is to be given an extra £20.5bn over the next 5 years.

This equates to the NHS budget rising on average 3.4% annually.

The 3.4% average annual rise is still less than the 3.7% average it has had since 1948.

The five-year funding settlement covers just front-line budgets overseen by NHS England.

There has been a planned boost for social care of an additional boost for social care, including £650m of grant funding for English councils for 2019/20 and an additional £45m for the disabled facilities grant in England in 2018/19.

Year-by-year funding increases

• 19-20: 3.6%
• 20-21: 3.6%
• 21-22: 3.1%
• 22-23: 3.1%
• 23-24: 3.4%

What this means for General Practice

GP leaders have warned, the autumn budget has failed to deliver the funding General Practice needs to become sustainable, despite confirmation that NHS funding will rise by £20.5bn over the next five years.

General practice is currently receiving 8.1% of the NHS budget, excluding the reimbursement of drugs. This is significantly less than around a decade ago – in 2005/06 general practice received around 9.6% of the NHS budget excluding the reimbursement of drugs.

The BMA chair, Dr Chaand Nagpaul has said that General Practice needs a minimum of 11% of the NHS budget and anything less will not be sufficient enough to address the immediate problem.

The Nuffield Trust think tank warned that much of the NHS funding increase would be needed ‘just to get the basics back on track’ – and hit out at a lack of funding guarantees for ‘hospital buildings, IT investments, training or public health’.

In the House of Commons, Mr Hammond said ‘Our NHS is the number one priority of the British people. But the British people also care that the money invested in the NHS goes to the frontline and to improvements in services. So we didn’t just hand over money.’

It is not known at this point what percentage of the NHS budget General Practice will receive, it is hard to believe that this part of the NHS will receive the 11% requested by GP leaders to fix the immediate issues.

It has been mentioned that there will be an additional boost for social care, including £650m of grant funding for English councils for 2019/20 and an additional £45m for the disabled facilities grant in England in 2018/19.

What do you think

What do you think of the Autumn budget and how it will affect the NHS and general practice. Let us know your thoughts and follow our social media pages for updates in the medical industry.