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Minister reveals cuts will pay for social care
A £670m-a-year plan to provide free social care will be paid for by cutting spending on research and development and public health promotions, as well as efficiencies in the NHS, Health Secretary Andy Burnham has revealed.
But the Department of Health said the NHS's health research programme – including work on healthcare priorities like cancer and dementia – would be "ring-fenced" to be protected from any cuts.
Research and development savings would come from the department's separate R&D budget, which concentrates on administrative issues.
The Social Care Bill, published yesterday, is a key plank of the Government's agenda set out by Gordon Brown in last week's Queen's Speech, which the Prime Minister hopes to rush on to the statute books in the six months left before a general election.
It will guarantee free personal care at home for up to 280,000 elderly and disabled people with the highest needs, while another 130,000 will receive other help, including adaptations to their properties to allow them to remain at home for longer.
The proposals sparked criticism and a barrage of questions over how the Government would pay for them.
Mr Burnham said he planned to fund the measures by diverting 60m from his department's R&D budget and 50m from public health promotions.
Cutting spending on management consultants would provide 60m, while further funds would come from a productivity drive intended to secure 20bn in efficiency savings across the NHS.
But a Department of Health spokesman said: "We can categorically state that cancer and dementia funding will not be affected.
"We are now providing more funding than ever for health research. This 1bn budget is ring-fenced for research. We are committed to fighting cancer and have recently announced our plans for patients to be given a legal right to see a cancer specialist within two weeks."
Mr Burnham said he would be "ruthless" in finding funding for the home care plan. "It's always a question of priorities," he said. "I'm not cutting into vital projects. I'm moving stuff out of lower-priority, backroom spend towards direct public benefit."
Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: "Andy Burnham's sums simply don't add up. The amount of money they are cutting from the NHS budget doesn't even begin to cover what they claim the cost of the policy will be, which most experts agree is already a gross under-estimate.
"The cuts to the medical research budget will also do real damage to our long-term work on preventing killer diseases."
He added: "Many people will wonder if this is the best use of NHS resources."
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Friday 10 February 2012
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