A continued capital funding boost for primary and community services is ‘vital’ if the NHS is to achieve the government’s plan to move more care out of hospitals, and develop a neighbourhood health service, health leaders have warned.
The NHS Confederation is urging the government to use the upcoming Spending Review to continue to increase investment in capital funding for estates, equipment, and technology across the NHS. The Confederation said: “The government has committed to developing a neighbourhood healthcare service, with local neighbourhood hubs which bring primary, community, and other services under one roof. As the government plans to deliver 1.5 million new homes by the next Parliament, it will be crucial to ensure that healthcare infrastructure grows to match this, so new towns can access services.”
The Confederation says ‘an historic underinvestment in capital’ has made it difficult for GPs and community providers to make their buildings suitable for modern healthcare – with a fifth of GP estates pre-dating the NHS, and half over 30 years’ old. It says the capital made available has often been focused on acute hospitals and other parts of secondary care.
The NHS Confederation’s call came as it convened local health leaders and at its recent ‘Care Closer to Home’ conference in Birmingham to discuss the practical solutions to deliver the government’s ambitions in this space.
NHS leaders welcomed the government’s £3.1 billion increase in capital funding announced in the Budget last October, but warn that more will be needed in primary and community services to put the health service on a sustainable long-term footing. This was announced alongside the £102 million investment for upgrades to GP premises, in what was dubbed ‘a first step towards transforming the primary care estate’.
NHS Confederation CEO, Matthew Taylor (pictured), said this ‘shift of resources’, alongside more capital funding, will be vital if these primary and community services are to manage more demand and provide more care closer to patients’ homes. He said: “The upcoming spending review and Ten Year Plan offer a great opportunity to re-shape the health and care system around the principles of community, prevention, and digital improvement.
“There is a vision for primary and community care to be at the centre of the patient’s experience of the health service, providing treatment closer to where they live, and reducing the need for expensive hospital treatment. But for this to become reality and successfully make the shift from hospital to community, sickness to prevention, and analogue to digital, more capital funding will be vital to ensure primary and community services have the right estate, equipment, and technology, to meet rising demand for care.”
