Extra Cash From Budget Won't Avoid NHS Winter Crisis Says Health Secretary
Matt Hancock told Nick Ferrari that the extra £20 billion cash injection into the NHS from the new budget would not avoid a winter crisis as the money won't come until April 2019.
"So we are going to have another winter crisis?" Nick interjected.
"We're working very hard to ensure that the NHS copes with winter as well as possible but winter is always a challenge", said the Health Secretary.
Matt Hancock then went on to confirm that an extra £400 million had been put into the NHS for this winter "both to help in A&Es again and also with social care [and] the link between getting people out of hospital who don't need to be in hospital anymore and making sure they've got the care so that they can go hopefully home or, if needed, into a home."
When Nick questioned if, since the cash from the budget isn't available until April next year, some money should have been found a little earlier, Matt Hancock confirmed that the £400 million he had mentioned would indeed be going into the NHS in time for the upcoming winter.