Phillip Hammond says that claims the NHS is experiencing an extreme financial crisis are exaggerated by healthcare leaders.
During an interview on the Andrew Marr show, Phillip Hammond, Chancellor of the Exchequer, rejected a plea from health leaders for an emergency £4bn cash injection in this week’s Budget, accusing him of exaggerated claims of an NHS financial crisis.
Hammond explains that every year governmental departments demand huge figures of money, “otherwise Armageddon will arrive”.
Instead, the Chancellor appeared to blame Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England, for problems in the NHS, saying that plans are “not being delivered” correctly.
Earlier this year the head of NHS England took the ‘extraordinary’ step of making a public plea for an extra £4billion of public funding.
During an interview on the Andress Marr show Phillip Hammond said;
“In the run up to Budget, people running all kinds of services and government departments come to see us and they always have very large numbers that are essential, otherwise Armageddon will arrive.
“I’ll just remind you that Simon Stevens drew up the NHS five-year view, back in 2014.
“He drew up the envelope of resource he asked for: £10bn by 2020. The Government agreed that. That plan at the moment is not being delivered.”
The Government will set out its next Budget on Wednesday 22 November 2017.