Letter from AoMRC to Editor of The Times

4 June 2018

The following was sent to the Editor of The Times newspaper from Professor Carrie MacEwen as chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. The Times have subsequently published this article regarding NHS funding.

Dear Sir

As we approach the 70th birthday of the NHS and the Prime Minister prepares to set out a long­term plan for the future of our National Health Service, it is welcome that we are now having a national debate on the financial sustainability of the NHS.

Medical Royal Colleges have consistently called for increased funding for the NHS, public health and social care and last week’s report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Health Foundation “Securing the future: funding health and social care to the 2030s” sets out the challenges facing the health service and makes a strong case for the urgent need for an increase in spending just to maintain NHS provision at current levels.

The report makes clear that increases of c.4% a year will be needed if the Government wishes to improve NHS services, including meeting waiting times targets and addressing under-provision in mental health services.

The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges fully supports this call to ensure the financial sustainability of the NHS in the long-term. We urgently need a settlement for the NHS and social care which goes beyond managing short-term crises, acknowledges the financial deficits across the sector, and recognises the need to invest in transformation and recruitment.

As leaders of medical professionals working within the health service, we recognise that alongside increased funding there need to be substantial changes in how health and care services operate and ways of working, if we are to deliver the shared goal of providing first­class, integrated care for patients.

We call on the government to put in place a long-term solution to NHS and social care funding which enables this to happen.

Yours faithfully,

Professor Carrie MacEwen MD, FRCOphth, FRCS, FFSEM, FRCPE
Chair, Academy of Medical Royal Colleges