On 15 March Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt delivered his Spring Budget 2023 in the House of Commons.
Responding, BGS President Professor Adam Gordon, said:
We are shocked that the Chancellor barely mentioned the NHS in the Spring Budget and did not mention social care at all. Both sectors are in crisis and urgently need action from the Government.
The Chancellor at least acknowledged his previous commitment to the publication of an NHS workforce plan in the Autumn Statement, but this has not yet materialised. The NHS is coming out of the worst winter in its history, and significant numbers of healthcare professionals are currently taking strike action. The Government can no longer avoid this issue – the workforce plan must be published and the Government must seek to resolve the disputes at the heart of the industrial action as soon as possible. Failure to do so will result in disastrous consequences for patients, particularly for older people who are the NHS’s biggest patient group.
We welcome the concession the Chancellor made to resolve the pensions issue for senior doctors. However without investment in the wider NHS and social care workforce, we foresee the quality of care declining and more avoidable deaths occurring over the coming months. A sustainable, strategic approach is needed now to arrest this decline.”
