This is a talking point published by the Hereford Times on September 5.

Glen Burley, chief executive of Wye Valley NHS Trust

WITH the prospect of a challenging autumn budget, I thought it might be helpful to talk a little here about the financial challenges faced by the NHS.

All numbers associated with the NHS tend to be big and budget is no exception – the NHS in England spends around £150bn each year. This equated to £2,647 per person in 2021/22, 10 per cent less than the EU average.

People now live an average of 13 years longer than they did before the NHS was created, but these added years are often spent in ill health.

This increasing demographic demand, together with staffing gaps and inflation has created a risk that the NHS could overspend by around £2bn this year. This could be even higher if pay awards are not fully funded.

Most NHS expenditure goes on staffing, equipment and drugs costs. Only a relatively small fraction goes on capital expenditure i.e. buildings and equipment.

When asked about spending priorities for the new Government, most NHS leaders would prioritise capital.

The NHS spends around £7.7bn a year on capital. Around half of this is to maintain existing assets, such as hospitals. The other half is spent on new buildings and equipment, including IT.

To illustrate one of the consequences, compared with other countries, we have far fewer CT and MRI scanners (the sixth lowest among the 39 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD) countries).

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In addition, the NHS’s backlog maintenance programme is now valued at just over £10.2bn. Half of this is rated at high or significant risk of failure. While this creates risks for staff and patients, it also reduces efficiency and quality of outcomes.

It is also widely recognised that the NHS lags behind other sectors on adoption of technology, much of which would free up clinicians to see more patients.

In these challenging times of public spending, it is clear that increasing expenditure in this area would deliver a good return on investment to improve the health of the nation which in turn would provide a positive boost to the economy.